Plastic Bullet Frenzy!
by MP5
Summary: Full Summary Inside, will be moved to Crossovers later on. Ayaka Yukihiro launches a massive wargaming event spanning the entire city of Mahora and its schools. Four armies vie for top spot. Whose side are you on?
1. A fair word of warning from the Author

Before you read, a note from the author:

Welcome to Plastic Bullet Frenzy, a Negima fanfiction with later crossovers featuring K-ON! and The Idolmster. This story is inspired by the Martians vs. Mages arc in the Manga as well as the universe of my original story on Fictionpress dot net, "Crossfire: Tactical Action Gaming." Please bear in mind that this work of fanfiction has a heavy amount of my own original characters, due to the crossover with my self-created universe. As a result, if you read this first, you will encounter spoilers for events and characters within the realm of Crossfire: Tactical Action Gaming. If you do not wish to spoil your reading experience of that story, please follow Crossfire first, and keep this work tucked away for a much, much later date.

If however, you do not intend to read Crossfire, you are more than welcome to jump right into this whimsical tale of mostly-realistic wargaming, occasional magic, and some musical entertainment somewhere down the line. With that, those who dare may go ahead and jump into the fray.

See you on the battlefield!

-MP5

P.S. Please review this story if you feel like adding it to your favorites. This is my first expedition into Negima! territory, and I want to know what people think.


	2. 1: Preparations

**Plastic Bullet Frenzy!**

**A Negima! Magister Negi Magi fanfiction**

**Synopsis: **Encouraged by positive feedback from the attendees of the Mahora Festival's 'Martians vs Mages' event, Yukihiro Ayaka organizes another such massive event, one that is open to not just students and faculty, but visitors and players from around the world! Dubbed Operation: Azure Typhoon, this massive wargaming event utilizes the system known as TAG, or Tactical Action Gaming, as a means of waging battle. With four massive factions (including NPC's) and the entire Mahora Academy grounds as their battlefield, this event promises to be a rollicking good time for all involved. Crossover with story 'Crossfire: Tactical Action Gaming'

Disclaimer: Author retains no ownership of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, which is property of Ken Akamatsu and Kodansha. All trademarks featured herein are copyright their respective owners.

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**Chapter 1: Preparations**

During a pleasant Saturday afternoon at the Yukihiro household, Ayaka was conferring at a round table with a number of individuals concerning logistics for the upcoming "Azure Typhoon" event taking place in Mahora. This concerned everything from transportation, equipment, food, medical aid, and so on. Ayaka wanted this event to run smoothly and perfectly, and the people around her, she was sure, were the right folks for the job. Turning to her left, she spoke with an 18-year-old Russian boy who was her go-to person for Tactical Action Gaming equipment.

"Shpinev-san, let me start with you." began Ayaka. "You're a TAG dealer, and as such, you seek a large consumer base. Would you be able to provide sponsorship and set up a small shop before and during Azure Typhoon?"

"That will not be a problem, Yukihiro-san." replied Demyan Shpinev, owner and operator of Shpinev Replica Arms Shop. "In fact, I relish these events, as it gives me an opportunity to get the word out that we sell TAG weapons at good prices. I can get a truck or two down here in a day or so loaded with merchandise, including weapons, tactical gear, accessories, and ammunition. I assume that you'll be wanting one standard weight of ammunition? Consider it done."

"Thank you for that, Shpinev-san." replied Ayaka, turning to another individual. "Kealington-san, without sparing any expense, how many vehicles can you supply for this event?"

"Well, my group, Wildfire Tactical Solutions, can provide a reasonable land and air transportation package for an event such as this one to the tune of about... 20 million yen, since these vehicles are simply being rented." replied Michael Kealington, team leader of Wildfire Tactical Solutions, which was part TAG team, part Private Military Company. "I have heard about the Mahora Military Club and their fleet of military transport aircraft. Not to mention the Aviation Club and their own aircraft... are you sure you'll need my helicopters for this, Yukihiro-san?"

"I think it would be fair if all four factions had some transportation, and combined, the Military Club and Aviation Club are still unable to provide aircraft for all involved. In addition, my primary concern is rotary-wing aircraft; fixed-wing is not what I am looking for, and unfortunately, that is what both clubs possess the most of. If you have them, I would appreciate it if you can provide Bell UH-1 and McDonnell-Douglas MD-500 helicopters." replied Ayaka, scribbling on her clipboard.

"I'm sure we can fly some over down here for the event. Any ground vehicle preferences?" asked Michael, tapping out a message on his Blackberry smartphone.

"Just anything you think will fit each faction." finished Ayaka, turning to her right. "Asakura-san, I trust your skill in getting word out about anything of importance. What are your plans for promoting this event?"

"I'm planning to work with the Military Club on this one, _iincho_; they're pretty excited about the event." replied Asakura Kazumi, Class 3-A's ace reporter. An energetic girl with a nose for news and hot topics, Kazumi was more than qualified to get word out about Operation: Azure Typhoon. "Outside of class, I'm working with the Military Club students to put up promotional posters for Azure Typhoon and pass out flyers in-costume. They've been kind enough to provide me with an authentic ballistic Press Jacket and Kevlar helmet so that I look like a war correspondent. We're also planning to stage a video that looks like a scene from the fighting in the scenario you mentioned in the briefing packet."

"Very good." stated Ayaka, turning to the person next to Kazumi. "Yotsuba-san, I'm assuming you have a meal plan for this event?"

"Chao Bao Zi will be up and running like last time, _iincho_." replied the slightly plump Yotsuba Satsuki, Student #30 and School Dining Officer. "While participants are welcome to bring their own food, we will have both Chao Bao Zi and a mess hall of sorts running during the event, so that people who have downtime can get in a quick bite between respawns or if they missed a meal. Water is free, but anything else will have to be paid for. As always, we accept meal tickets, cash, credit, or debit."

"Looks like this will work." concluded Ayaka. "All right, that takes care of our major logistics concerns. Anyone else I have not spoken to yet must stay here. As for the four of you, Yotsuba-san, Asakura-san, Kealington-san, and Shpinev-san, you may leave and attend to your roles as you wish."

As the four left the Yukihiro mansion, Demyan quickly made some chit-chat with Michael concerning the latter's participation in the upcoming event.

"So, will I be seeing Team Wildfire at Azure Typhoon? It is open to anyone, after all." said Demyan casually.

"The chances of that are about 50-50, mate." replied Michael. "You know how our team is, we may be needed in one place or another, and people are paying money for us to do what is a hobby for most people. What about the War Pigs, are they showing up?"

"They might bite, once I tell Katsuro about this big event. Always looking for a challenge, that guy. Who knows, 'Fat Man' and 'Little Boy' might have to make an appearance as well, considering how big this event is going to be. Interested yet?"

"I'll see if our schedule is clear. We might have to come back here, support a faction."

"You just want to see those two war wagons in action again, don't you?"

"Perhaps. But this is also an opportunity to make money."

"We'll know more in a few days' time, I assume." concluded Demyan. Overhead, the thrum of a helicopter rotor and sensation of powerful rotor wash caught the attention of the four logistics heads as an Mi-8 transport helicopter came in for a landing on the helipad located on the grounds of the Yukihiro estate.

"Still can't believe you're using this old Soviet-bloc clunker." deadpanned Michael. "Ever considered an upgrade?"

"I make do with what I can get." replied Demyan. "Besides, it's still flying, isn't it? It's not like I can afford a sexy new MD-500, anyway."

As the bulky helicopter landed on the helipad, the two males turned to Kazumi and Satsuki and bowed. "Well, this is where we part ways, Asakura-san, Yotsuba-san. Hopefully we'll see you soon. Take care." said Demyan, before turning to board the helicopter.

"Asakura-san, I'm looking forward to seeing that promotional 'war footage'." added Michael, before going off to follow Demyan. Kazumi felt her eye twitch as she watched the helicopter take off and fly away.

_These rich bastards..._thought Kazumi. _What the hell kind of people are they?_

"Money attracts other money, doesn't it, Kazumi-chan?" pondered Satsuki, snapping Kazumi out of her envy and disdain for the two males who just left in a helicopter.

"I guess it does, Satsuki-chan." replied Kazumi. "That's to be expected of iincho-san, though. I still remember the Martians vs. Mages battle a couple months ago, and you remember how big that was. If that's any indication, this one is going to be much bigger."

"Well, we better get to work." finished Satsuki. "Any army marches on its stomach, which I have to take care of, and as for you, you need to get the word out."

"Let's make this thing happen, then."

---------

3 days later, Kazumi's efforts to promote OP: Azure Typhoon were in full swing with the help of the Military Club. Flyers were distributed while in full gear around the major foot traffic areas of Mahora Academy, including the shopping arcades, dormitories, and common areas. The Mahora Military Club even sent up their treasured Mi-24 Hind D to blare 'PsyOps' messages from speakers mounted on the weapon wing stubs and drop leaflets courtesy of a few people that sat in the passenger cabin with the doors open. As the build-up to the event continued, Demyan showed up as promised and set up a temporary shop operated out of a semi-articulated trailer hitched to a Nissan Diesel truck. Within days of the announcement for OP: Azure Typhoon, Demyan found his mini-shop besieged by hundreds of customers clamoring to get hit sensor vests, weapons, accessories, tactical gear, and ammunition for the event. The hotels in the surrounding area were beginning to fill up with reservations from players who had been hearing about the event and were prepared to travel all the way to Mahora from all over Japan, and even some foreign players were getting in on the action.

To put the finishing touch on promotion for the event, Kazumi and the Military Club shot footage in various locations around Mahora, highlighting actions by the four various factions that would be featured in OP: Azure Typhoon. They started with the so-called 'Mahorastan Revolutionary Guard' faction and portrayed a military crackdown on dissidents by having a number of red beret-clad soldiers 'executing' civilians accused of treason with Kazumi reacting with horror as they filmed the scene below them from an orbiting helicopter. Next, they shot a piece that entailed a rebel attack on an MRG outpost by the Free Mahorastan Alliance, making sure to get a shot of the FMA rebels victoriously draping their flag over the wall of the outpost. Following that, they went to a rooftop and filmed footage of the Military Club's V-22 Osprey dropping off 'Coalition Forces' troops onto a building from nylon ropes suspended from the rear ramp before releasing them and flying off. Finally, they filmed the 'deployment' of Poseidon Tactical Inc.'s Private Military Contractors into the 'Mahorastan Region' as Kazumi and her cameraman rode in one of several SUV's loaded with personnel clad in tactical gear and baseball caps carrying assorted assault rifles and submachine guns. Once the filming was finished, Kazumi went with the tapes to an editing studio and added digital effects before releasing the videos throughout the weeks leading up to Azure Typhoon. The release of these videos alone caused a jump in registrations for the event. All that was left to do now was find who would lead each faction. Naturally, this was all left to Ayaka...

--------

The week before Azure Typhoon began, several letters arrived in several different mailboxes, along with large packages whose contents were unknown until the letter was read.

Negi Springfield was the first to open his letter. After reading it over silently, his eyes widened and he called over Asuna and Konoka to see the letter.

"Dear Negi Springfield," he began, reading the letter aloud. "The staff of Operation: Azure Typhoon are pleased to inform you that you have been selected to lead the **Coalition Forces** faction into battle during this massive war game event. Your participation as a hero unit in the Martians vs Mages event has been considered in your selection as a force leader. We look forward to seeing you at this event, as well as your comrades **Kagurazaka Asuna, Sakurazaki Setsuna, **and **Konoe Konoka**. Sincerely, Azure Typhoon Staff."

"Congratulations, Negi-kun!" cheered Konoka. "Looks like you're being a leader again!"

"Guess we better get kitted out at that TAG shop trailer that just got here." said Asuna, exasperated at the thought of spending money on something that she wasn't really expecting to attend.

"Wait. This package came with the letter." said Setsuna, cutting the shipping box along the seam of the flaps with her _wakazishi_. Carefully opening the box and brushing aside the packing peanuts, she found the important contents inside.

"Looks like we don't have to do any shopping, Asuna-san. No wonder this box is so large, it has everything we need for this event."

Inside the package were four primary weapons, four sidearms, full uniforms and load-bearing equipment, TAG hit sensor vests and goggles, a medic pouch for Konoka, bags of ammunition, and for some reason, a plastic katana. Included was a note letting them know that they could keep everything that was inside, and a side note that the staff couldn't imagine Setsuna without a sword, even if it wasn't real. This last part caused the female samurai to sweatdrop as she lifted the flimsy-feeling plastic sword out of the box.

"I guess I'll use this to deflect incoming rounds." stated Setsuna, unsheathing the 1:1-scale toy Katana and swinging it to get a feel for its balance. "I'll keep you covered in battle, _Ojousama_." she added, turning to Konoka.

"As expected of Se-chan." the healing mage replied with a smile.

"Well, we've got a week to figure this stuff out, let's not waste time." announced Asuna, reaching into the box for her primary weapon. Opening the box of her weapon, she was surprised to find an M60E4 machine gun.

"What is this..." said Asuna, her left eyebrow twitching. "They think I'm John Rambo or something?"

"Easy, Asuna-chan." said Negi, trying to calm the girl down. "I think that they see you as more suited to carrying the 'big stick', so to speak."

"It certainly suits you, Asuna-chan!" giggled Konoka.

------------

In other dorms (and in one case, a log cabin), similar letters and packages were received and given varying degrees of reaction.

Tatsumiya Mana simply glanced at the letter and said, "Cool. I'm leading a PMC." before lifting a TAG replica of the Zastava M21 assault rifle, this one already kitted out with a laser unit, Noveske Flash Hider, and an EOTech reflex sight.

"Someone did their homework." commented Mana, donning the supplied Poseidon Tactical baseball cap.

------------

At Evangeline A.K. McDowell's cabin in the woods, her robot partner Chachamaru brought up the package.

"Eva-sama, there's a package here for you from the Azure Typhoon staff. It has a letter attached to it." announced Chachamaru.

"Let's see this letter before I throw it away." said Evangeline, bored. Her expression changed when she read the contents of the letter. "Oh-ho! I get to lead an army, do I? Excellent..."

As Evangeline began to cackle evilly, Chachamaru watched the scene with a feeling of unease. _Eva-sama's cruel side is going to show again..._ thought the android.

-----------

Yuna Akashi was well and truly excited when she received the package and letter in the mail. She was leading the Free Mahorastan Alliance into battle for Azure Typhoon, the staff citing her high score from the Martians vs. Mages battle and her 'guts' as her qualification for the role. Gushing with anticipation, she tried to restrain herself, and as calmly as she could, tried on her combat gear. To fit the 'rebel' role, they had given her faded, well-worn and slightly tattered Olive Drab BDU's with no sleeves and some missing buttons on the shirt, and a red bandanna and armband. Her weapons consisted of a no-frills AK-47 with its magazines duct-taped together for fast reloading and a slightly battered M1911A1 gas pistol. Looking at herself in the mirror, she felt a tingle of excitement surge through her body.

"I can't wait for Saturday! This is gonna be so awesome!" exclaimed Yuna, flopping onto her bed, still dressed in her costume.

-----------

Meanwhile, at a warehouse in Tokorozawa, Saitama, a well-known amateur-league TAG team was loading two all-black vehicles with their own weapons and personal items and making final checks before setting off for Mahora. This team was known from Hokkaido to Osaka simply as the 'War Pigs', led by a recently-turned-18 Masayoshi Katsuro. Assembling the team, he ran through some last-minute checks with the second driver, team sniper Charlie Peterson.

"All right, are all the guns loaded into the back of 'Fat Man'?" asked Katsuro.

"All 10 of our gun bags are loaded and secured." replied Charlie, shutting the tailgate of 'Fat Man'.

"Mounted weapons deactivated for the trip to Mahora?"

"Tucked away, batteries removed, and unloaded."

"All right, our personal stuff is in 'Little Boy', and I'd say we're all ready to make this trip. Let's get rolling."

The 10-person team piled into the two vehicles and headed out of the warehouse, its doors shutting automatically as the last car moved out.

When the two vehicles found their way to the highway towards their destination, the vehicles traveled in a single-file convoy. About an hour into the trip, Charlie, driving 'Little Boy', could hear the distinct _thp-thp-thp_ sound of rotor blades, and judging by the frequency and volume, there were multiple helicopters nearby. Looking up through the top of his windshield, he was surprised to see a flight of what were undoubtedly Wildfire Tactical Solutions helicopters. More importantly, this armada of helicopters was headed in the same direction as they were. Charlie grasped the handset to his in-car CNR radio and depressed the push-to-talk button.

"Little Boy to Fat Man, Little Boy to Fat Man, do you copy, over?"

"Fat Man copies, Little Boy." responded Katsuro on the other end. "Go ahead, over."

"Fat Man, check your six and elevate. We've got company up above. Over."

Katsuro engaged his rear-view camera and panned it upwards. Like Charlie, he was shocked to see the Wildfire Tactical helicopter armada traveling just above their convoy. Before he could get over his surprise, his in-car radio picked up a hailing request from the helicopter formation.

"Wildfire Flight to Fat Man. Do you read, Fat Man, over?" asked one of the pilots.

"Fat Man copies, Wildfire Flight. Over." replied Katsuro, slightly tense.

"Fat Man, stand by for communication with Wildfire Leader Michael Kealington. Over."

A second passed, and then the British teen's voice came through the speaker.

"Masayoshi Katsuro-kun, we meet once again. I see my good friend Demyan Shpinev has tipped you off about Azure Typhoon. May I ask which side you've chosen to join, over?"

"Indeed, Demyan-kun told me about this event when he got back from discussing it with the event organizer. And since our team likes to represent forces of democracy, we've chosen to side with the Coalition Forces, over."

"As expected of Katsuro-kun." affirmed Michael. "Naturally, we've chosen to side with whoever can give us a lucrative contract, over."

"Wait, your team is being hired?! Which side is it, over?"

"It's not what you think, Katsuro-kun. We're playing as part of the Poseidon Tactical contractors faction." explained Michael. "While Wildfire Tactical is being paid for the event's rental of our aircraft and vehicles, we're still paying admission fee so that we can play on one of the ambiguous factions, one of them being Poseidon Tactical. We won't earn any money for playing, instead, we'll be 'paid', and I put that in air quotes, with local Mahora Meal Tickets which will be termed 'Zil' for the event. Essentially, we've managed to find an event where we can function as actual contractors, over."

"It definitely suits your team. I assume we'll be working together, over?"

"If that is the nature of this event, yes. I don't call the shots as to which contracts we take, I am for once a pawn on a bigger chess set. The Red Lake Tactical faction is being led by some local bird at Mahora named Tatsumiya Mana. I've heard rumors that despite the fact she's a middle school student, she lives a double life as an actual mercenary. Therefore, our actions will be based on her decisions, over."

"I guess this means there will be some trust issues between us, then." reckoned Katsuro, dropping radio etiquette.

"You might say that." replied Michael, doing the same. "My advice to you would be to not get too comfortable around us. As our faction is working for profit, we could break our alliance with the Coalition Forces at the drop of a hat, and if we're ordered to do so, I won't hesitate to gun you down. Over and out."

With that threat disguised as a warning, the flight of Wildfire Tactical helicopters picked up speed and buzzed the highway, buffeting the two War Pigs vehicles in the wake of their rotor wash.

"We're screwed, aren't we, over?" asked Charlie, breaking the brief silence.

"It just means we have to be careful." replied Katsuro. Around the mercs, trust them, but keep your safeties off and be ready in case they switch sides. That's all there really is to it. Over and out."

The two-vehicle convoy continued north to Mahora as the sun began to set, unaware of what the next day's events would bring them.

------------------

With less than 24 hours to go until Operation: Azure Typhoon, Negi, Asuna, Setsuna, and Konoka were making final checks to their weapons and equipment. The four of them had gotten in as much practice as they could; improving their accuracy, timing the duration of the magazine changes/reloads, practicing small-unit tactics, finding ways of effectively arranging their gear for combat, and learning their weapons the way Setsuna learned her own blade. The four of them also ran physical fitness courses to build up what endurance they could in time for the event. As Negi had never really led an organized force into battle before, he did some studying, with Nodoka's help, of various battles throughout history, paying special attention to those involving the control of an urban environment. After studying these battles and how they were won or lost, he also used a translated copy of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" as a guide to his battle strategy. As he read, he burned each tenet into his mind in the hopes he would be able to realize them in battle. Despite all the preparation, Negi was nervous, being shouldered with the responsibility of leading so many troops into battle.

"Uwaa... such a big task, commanding so many people. I don't know if I'm up for this." fretted the 10-year-old teacher.

Suddenly, a strong, but feminine hand came down on Negi's head and ruffled his hair playfully, the boy making an 'ah!' sound in surprise. It was Asuna, and as if sensing Negi's worries, attempted to quell them.

"You'll do fine, Negi." assured Asuna. "There's not as much need to take this seriously. Remember, it's only a game, when it all comes down to it. Win or lose, what matters is having fun."

"You're right." replied Negi, finally cracking a small smile. "It's just a game... but Eva-sensei is leading the enemy team..." he realized, slumping into depression and fright. As Asuna watched, she realized motivating the boy would be tougher than she realized. Then an idea hit her.

"Stop acting like this, Negi! This is no way for a leader to behave! If you're nervous, that makes the rest of us nervous. So what if the enemy leader is Eva-san? That doesn't make a difference, she's playing a game, too. Besides, as our commander, we look to you to be strong in the face of the enemy, and you've done that before on numerous occasions. Why stop now, when we're simply playing a game? Remember, Negi; you have a speech to make tomorrow, before the start of Azure Typhoon. You gotta 'rally the troops', so to speak, and it's a lot more fun if you're serious and determined about it."

Konoka came into the room and hugged Negi from behind. "Don't worry, Negi-kun. I'm sure you'll do fine!"

"And we'll be right there with you when the time comes to fight." added Setsuna, racking the charging handle on her supplied RedWolf Custom HK416 AEG. "You can count on us, Negi-sensei."

"Thank you, everyone." said Negi cheerfully. "I'm glad to have your support!"

---------------

At dawn, Operation: Azure Typhoon was kicked off with much fanfare as thousands of participants milled about with their weapons on display (safed and unloaded, of course) to gather with their respective forces. Many introduced themselves to one another and wished each other good luck in the upcoming battle. Among the participants were the War Pigs, who, as they made their way to the assembly area, came across Negi and his roommates, and Saidan Azumi, the co-founder of the War Pigs, noticed the young child, wearing the Coalition Forces insignia on his uniform. Naturally, her interest was piqued; it's not every day one sees a young child participating in a massive TAG event. So she broke off from the rest of the War Pigs and approached Negi's group, who was in the middle of idle conversation when she got their attention.

"Excuse me, I couldn't help but notice you guys were on the same faction as us." said Azumi, indicating the rest of the War Pigs, who were watching the scene with some interest. "I should introduce myself. I'm Saidan Azumi."

"Kagurazaka Asuna. Pleased to meet you, Saidan-san."

"Likewise. I'm Konoe Konoka."

"Sakurazaki Setsuna."

"Negi Springfield. Nice to meet you, Saidan-san."

Negi's introduction got Azumi's attention, and she crouched down to his eye level to speak to him. "Well, aren't you just adorable! I take it you're not originally from around here, though?"

"N-no," replied Negi, slightly flustered. "I'm actually from England."

"Well, you've certainly come a long way to play in a game this large." replied Azumi, in genuine surprise.

"Actually, Negi-sensei is our English teacher." stated Setsuna. "And while he's here to teach us, he's also our roommate."

"Oh!" said Azumi, surprised once again. "A teacher, huh? Wasn't expecting that. On another note are you guys a team?"

"Sort of." spoke Asuna. "We're a team, but this is actually the first time we've ever played TAG. I take it you're part of a team as well?"

"Now that you mention it, yes." replied Azumi, gesturing to the War Pigs. "I'm the co-founder of the Tokorozawa War Pigs team. We came here all the way from Saitama. How about you guys?"

"Oh, we're locals." replied Setsuna. "Mahora Academy is where we live and go to school."

"That's excellent!" piped in Katsuro, now standing next to Azumi. "I think my team should stick with you guys; you probably know the area much better."

"This is the other founder of the War Pigs," Azumi stated. "Masayoshi Katsuro."

As further introductions were exchanged between the two parties, time flew by quickly and they all had to form up in their faction's ranks as the anonymous MC of Azure Typhoon gave the stage to the event organizer, Ayaka.

"Welcome, one and all, to this great event!" began Ayaka. "Thanks to your positive feedback from last year's 'Martians vs. Mages' event, I decided to create another massive wargaming event and spared no expense in making Operation: Azure Typhoon one of the most realistic in the world. Now, before I turn things over to your force commanders, I would like to get some safety rules first..."

It took about 5 minutes for Ayaka to get the common-sense safety precautions out of the way, before finally calling on each force's commanders. In short order, the Coalition Forces were up first. The War Pigs had no idea who was their commander, and it was an even bigger shock to them when they found out they were to be led... by a 10-year-old English teacher.

Negi stepped behind the podium, whose elevated position granted him a widespread view of his troops as well as the other factions' forces. Hesitantly, he began to speak into the microphone, but had to stop short when some feedback occurred. When it was gone, he was finally able to speak.

"Um... where to begin... right! Coalition Forces personnel, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Negi Springfield--(sudden interruption by cheers from veterans of the Martians vs. Mages event) Thank you, you're very kind. Continuing on, I will be your leader for Operation: Azure Typhoon. We have a great purpose for being here today, and that is to dismantle the oppressive regime that has smothered and ruined the lives of its citizens. We must show that those with the mightiest power can and will put an end to injustice. For the sake of the Mahorastani people, we must bring FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY to this country, so that its people can flourish and prosper. Some of Mahorastan's people have already begun to facilitate the process in the form of the Free Mahorastan Alliance, but it may not be enough, so we are here to help them if they need assistance. Coalition Forces, **we** are the hammer of justice! Today, we shall use it to tear down the enemy's home, and we shall allow the people of Mahorastan to build over it!"

With that, Negi finished his speech, and the pumped-up Coalition Forces erupted into a spirited yell as they raised their weapons into the air without firing them. Yuna took the stage next, addressing the FMA faction.

"For those of you who seek a brighter future for Mahorastan, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Akashi Yuna. For some time now, we have taken action against the unjust regime that ran this country for as long as we can remember. They have taken away livelihoods, loved ones, and our freedom for no reason at all! We have suffered through our lives under the cruel, oppressive boot of a selfish excuse for a government that lavishes its elite with luxuries and untold fortunes while the people scrape by on a day-to-day basis! No more, I say! It is time we surge forward and truly fight back against the old regime! We will avenge those whose lives were taken by the abused power of corrupt officials! We will fight to secure a more prosperous future for Mahorastan! We will establish a new government, one that exists to carry out the will of its people, not leech off the populace to satisfy its greed! It is an unfortunate fact that we will lose a number of brave souls in this fight, but through the course of history, the price of freedom has always been paid in blood! These martyrs for our cause will not be forgotten, and they will be remembered as champions of liberty, not mere statistics of conflict! For the sake of a brighter future, for the sake of a free Mahorastan, the Free Mahorastan Alliance, shall fight to the last breath!"

At this, the FMA players screamed at the top of their lungs in unison, "LONG LIVE FREE MAHORASTAN! URAAAH!" as they let loose short bursts of 'dry-fire' from their unloaded weapons. While lacking in professionalism, the FMA made up for it with determination and spirit, traits well harnessed by their leader. Yuna then stepped away from the podium, and for a few seconds, all was quiet until an explosion of smoke appeared behind the podium, and Evangeline took to her speech.

"As leader of the Mahorastan Revolutionary Guard, I, Evangeline A.K. McDowell, shall use the overwhelming force of our military to expel the foreign interlopers of the Coalition Forces and crush the insolent upstarts of the Free Mahorastan Alliance. Starting a conflict with the likes of us was a fatal, grave mistake, and we will force anyone whom we perceive as an enemy to submit to our might or die a horrible death! We shall not forgive these trespasses, and force the enemy to fight on our terms if they wish to take control of Mahorastan! We will not falter in our resolve! We will not bow our heads to the arrogance of the enemy! We will water the sacred soil of Mahorastan with the blood of our enemies!"

This rousing speech provoked the players in the MRG faction into raising their weapons into the air and firing off magazines that weren't supposed to be loaded into their TAG weapons. The moment Ayaka saw this, she grabbed hold of a CB-style handset, clenched the push-to-talk button, and let her indignation fly through massive Public Address speakers.

"HEY! REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS! DID YOU ALL HAVE WAX IN YOUR EARS DURING THE SAFETY BRIEFING?! UNTIL THE GAME BEGINS, YOU ARE NOT TO HAVE YOUR WEAPONS LOADED! MAGS OUT, SAFETIES AND BARREL BLOCKERS ON! UN-FUCK YOURSELVES THIS INSTANT!"

Cowed by the fury of the event organizer, the entire MRG faction did as they were told while the other factions around them swore never to incur Ayaka's wrath. Last but not least, Mana came to the stage fully clad in her 'Contractor' outfit; a polo shirt, desert boots, jeans, and tactical gear worn over her mostly civilian clothes. Adorning her head, naturally, was her faction's signature Poseidon Tactical Inc. baseball cap.

"Fellow contractors," began Mana, "my name is Tatsumiya Mana. As the executive director of all Poseidon Tactical Incorporated personnel, I am pleased to say that we have found a golden opportunity for profit here in Mahorastan. We have clients who will pay us handsomely to complete the missions they assign to us. Contrary to what the modern media would portray us as, we are not 'mercenaries', 'guns for hire', 'dogs of war', 'war profiteers', 'pirates', or other such slanderous titles. We are Private Military Contractors, sworn to a legally-binding document to complete our assignments with the utmost professionalism. And as professionals, we get paid for our services, albeit more so than any standing army out there. As such, I view our activities in this conflict as a high-risk business opportunity in both the physical and corporate sense. While I will be responsible for your contract assignments, do not think I value profit over your safety. Only if I see a contract that is advantageous to us both in terms of safety and profit gain will I accept and assign it to members of this company. Rest assured, I have your best interests in mind when I choose a contract, and that is a promise I intend to stick to."

The response to Mana's business-like speech was more subdued than other forces, inciting cheering and clapping from the Poseidon Tactical faction. With the last of the factions having presented their piece, Ayaka took the stage once again for her final words.

"And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we shall kick off Operation: Azure Typhoon in 15 minutes. Report to your headquarters to get your mission assignments. Good luck, godspeed,and may the best team win."

With those words, the madness of the next three days were set into motion.

**To Be Continued**

--------------

**Omake: What do those initials stand for?**

As the Coalition Forces began to move towards their HQ, Azumi couldn't help but remember Evangeline's introduction. Her full name was Evangeline A.K. McDowell. But what did the two initial stand for?

"Hey, guys." said Azumi to the War Pigs and her new comrades. "Do any of you know or think you know what that Evangeline-san's middle initials stand for?"

"Actually, I know why she just uses her middle initials." replied Albireo Imma, a mysterious player registered in the Coalition Forces faction. "She's too embarrassed to admit that her middle initials stand for Athanasia Ki--"

Albireo was suddenly interrupted by a flying kick to the head from a red-faced Evangeline. As she silenced the mystery player, she confronted Azumi and the War Pigs as she grasped her supplied weapon in hand.

"Don't listen to this idiot, he loves to spread stupid lies." said the vampire huffily.

"Then what do your middle initials stand for, if Imma-san was about to lie?" replied Azumi warily.

"A.K. stands for, of course, Avtomat Kalashnikov. As in the AK-47 rifle." replied Evangeline with a bold-faced lie, waving a TAG replica of the aforementioned weapon. Sure enough, Azumi, a hardcore AK-series fan, bought it.

"Whoa." said Azumi, her eyes shining. "That is so freaking cool!" Her fellow team members, however, saw the obvious lie, but went on anyway, not really caring. Meanwhile, Evangeline threatened Albireo to keep his mouth shut about the whole matter, swearing to eviscerate him if he ever revealed her embarrassing secret.


	3. 2: The Madness Begins

**Plastic Bullet Frenzy!**

**A Negima! Magister Negi Magi fanfiction**

**Synopsis: **Encouraged by positive feedback from the attendees of the Mahora Festival's 'Martians vs Mages' event, Yukihiro Ayaka organizes another such massive event, one that is open to not just students and faculty, but visitors and players from around the world! Dubbed Operation: Azure Typhoon, this massive wargaming event utilizes the system known as TAG, or Tactical Action Gaming, as a means of waging battle. With four massive factions (including NPC's) and the entire Mahora Academy grounds as their battlefield, this event promises to be a rollicking good time for all involved. Crossover with story 'Crossfire: Tactical Action Gaming'

Disclaimer: Author retains no ownership of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, which is property of Ken Akamatsu and Kodansha. All trademarks featured herein are copyright their respective owners.

* * *

**Chapter 2: The Madness Begins**

At the headquarters of each faction, a number of game organizers and liasons explained the objectives of each faction to its respective players. Depending on the objectives completed, points for each team would be earned, and the highest score at the end of the three-day event would win the operation. What made this truly competitive was the element of factions collaborating with other factions or working independently of each other, not to mention that each kill racked up 5 points for whichever team scored the kill, and there would be special bonuses for each time a team 'killed' an enemy leader, such as Negi or Evangeline. As those killed would have to go to a respawn area and 'dying' players revived or healed by a medic (equipped with 'defibrillators' that within 30 seconds of being downed, can return players to battle with the push of a button), preventing or accomplishing the completion of an objective could rely simply on how well-used and protected the medics were or how long a defender could hold off the enemy. For the first mission, each faction was assigned the following:

The Mahorastan Revolutionary Guards, being in their home turf in addition to having the largest populated faction, had to spread themselves out throughout the campus and its associated lands. They had to hold and defend their stronghold on Library Island, escort captured hostages to a secure location for later bargaining, and prevent the possible liberation of political prisoners from a makeshift prison.

For the Poseidon Tactical faction, their first mission was to escort a supply line convoy of trucks bearing supplies and medical equipment to a refugee camp on the outskirts of Mahora. Meanwhile, their air-mobile contingents were tasked with assisting the Coalition Forces' assault on the MRG stronghold on Library Island by providing security personnel and air support (scouting, supply drops, 'medevacs' and the occasional 'gun run') while the Coalition Forces secured Library Island and its accompanying bridge. In addition, there was going to be a meeting between Democratic Mahorastan party leader Yukihiro Ayaka and Coalition Interim Government Authority official Natsume Reiko. It would be Poseidon Tactical's responsibility to provide security for Ayaka and additional security for Reiko, whose bodyguards from her Tokorozawa High School Student Council Personal Security Detail were on hand for the event.

The Free Mahorastan Alliance was to get their mission underway by first liberating their comrades who were being held prisoner by MRG forces so that they would have more people in their fight. Following that, they had to cripple the abilities of the Mahorastan Revolutionary Guards by attacking and destroying a major supply dump controlled by the MRG, and finally, garner support for the FMA by taking over the Northern bell tower and draping their flag from its side for all to see.

Finally, the Coalition Forces had a lot on their plate, as they had to assault and secure Library Island and its bridge as a Forward Operations Base, a task herculean enough that they would require the assistance of the Poseidon Tactical PMC. What air power they had would also have to be split off between this assault and assisting the FMA's own assault on the MRG prison where political prisoners were being held in captivity. Aside from this, a small number of 'Special Operations' platoons from the Coalition Forces would also be assigned to intercepting and rescuing the hostages being held and transported by MRG forces to an undisclosed location.

Further complicating matters for all sides was the rogue, unpredictable element of NPC's, or Non-Player Characters. While 'Mahorastan' was supposed to be mostly evacuated of its civilian element, there were still a sizable number of non-combatants in the area going about their 'daily lives'. To hit a single civilian, even accidentally, subtracted 75 points from the guilty faction's score, and to make things even more challenging, random civilians were armed, albeit with only a primary weapon and maybe one or two spare magazines. If they felt threatened, they were well within their right to fire upon their assumed assailants, and the 4 major factions only had two real options: defuse the situation, or accept the 75-point loss to their overall score. Asakura Kazumi's role rated an even higher score penalty; shooting a single, individual press NPC (including any of her camera crew and technicians, all identified by their blue press jackets and helmets) subtracted a whopping 200 points from a faction's score.

-----------------

As each faction prepared to start the game, there were some chance meetings between friends and acquaintances in each faction. For instance, the War Pigs happened upon a rather familiar team of Brits, some who were living in Japan, and others who traveled back and forth between their homeland and the land of the rising sun. Looking like S.A.S. members straight out of _Call Of Duty 4_, these English gentlemen were the Union Jack's Guns, led by punk rocker and Akihabara regular Eric Vicious. Upon recognizing Katsuro, Eric and his team went over to chat with the War Pigs, who once bested them in battle and maintained a cordial relationship ever since. Eric and Katsuro were quite happy to see one another, and they exchanged a firm handshake between men.

"Well well, if it isn't good old Eric-san of the UJG! How are you doing these days, man?" greeted Katsuro.

"Pretty well, Katsuro-san." replied Eric. "Me and my mates saw the promo vids for this event, and we thought we shouldn't pass up the chance to attend this."

The War Pigs' combat tech support specialist, Kogawa Sadao, stood next to Katsuro to ask Eric about a marvelous weapon the UJG had on their side. "Did you guys bring Swordstone to this event?"

"We sure did." answered the UJG's co-founder, Bruce Harris. "We've made some minor improvements to Swordstone. We adapted the GPS beacon to be smaller so that delivery could be performed in ways other than just throwing the beacon. Now, if you wanted to deliver it, you can launch it from an M203, throw it like always, or airdrop it from R/C helicopters or planes like yours, Sadao-san. In addition, we've made more types of rounds. We now have illumination, which is basically a parachute flare inside the normal round, computer-controlled airburst, powered by red gas, smoke rounds for screening, and 'Armageddon' rounds that combine a bag's worth of BB's and a MK 9 Thunderflash grenade simulator. It gets its name because when it goes off, it sounds and feels like the end of the bloody world."

"Sounds awesome! Can't wait to call in one of those babies for fire support." replied Sadao, truly fascinated at what the British teen could come up with.

"Might be difficult to get such a mission, though." said Bruce resignedly. "The bird who organized this event got so many helicopters with guns together, our method would probably be second rate compared to a Huey or Little Bird with decent machine guns."

"Don't count on it." spouted Negi from behind both groups, drawing the attention of the War Pigs and Union Jack's Guns. "I just spoke to the liason, and he said that helicopters are fair game. I imagine a few are going to get shot down in the course of this event."

"See these smoke generators?" asked Asuna, pointing to a red cylindrical object mounted on the tail boom of a nearby Huey. "These activate when a particular panel inside these open-door helicopters is hit by incoming rounds. Another way to activate this is to shoot both pilots and hit their vests or goggles, or hit sensors mounted around the exterior of the helicopter with simulators that take the place of RPG's and similar rocket launchers. If any of those sensors are triggered, these smoke generators spew out red smoke and it means that not only has the helicopter been shot down, but everyone aboard is 'dead', and the chopper has to fly back to the spawn point and can only come out again after a respawn signal from the officials."

"That's exactly right, so don't think your method won't help." concluded Negi. "I'll need every bit of support I can get if the Coalition Forces are going to win this thing."

"You can count on us then, Negi-taishou." saluted Katsuro.

"Katsuro-san, I don't mean to be rude, but you look silly saluting this kid." said Eric bluntly.

"I'd say you look silly not doing so, even if it is a game." retorted Asuna. "Negi-sensei is the Coalition Forces head leader, after all."

"Negi-_sensei_?" queried Eric in surprise, the cigarette he was smoking dropping out of his mouth. "You don't mean..."

"That's right." piped in Konoka. "Negi-kun here is our English teacher!"

"B-b-but, he's like, 10 years old! That's a little weird, don't you think?"

"Don't ask us that question." deadpanned Asuna, recalling previous events that have shattered her definition of 'normal'.

"If you ask me, there's weirder out there. Just look at Yanagawa Rin-san from Gakuen Vice." said Katsuro, referring to the youngest TAG player coupled with the least-compatible weapon he'd seen yet.

"Good point." finished Eric, and not a moment too soon, as they were about to be interrupted by a familiar voice and the team associated with it.

"Yoo-hoo~! Daaaviiiid, how are you~?"

"Oh, cock." sighed the UJG's David Smith. "My sister's in this faction, too..."

Approaching the group was Diana Smith, leader of the all-female team Sabaku No Ookami. She was also Dave Smith's big sister and a source of embarrassment to her younger brother.

"I'm hurt, David." mock-pouted Diana. "My friends and I come all the way over here to greet you, and all you do is groan as soon as you're aware of my presence."

Her brother mumbled something incoherently and Diana simply rolled her eyes. When she saw Negi, however, her reaction was completely different. Smitten by his cute appearance,she walked over to him to introduce herself.

"Well, aren't you just the cutest little soldier I've ever seen! What's your name, sweetie?" greeted Diana.

"Oh! Uhm... I'm Negi Springfield. By now, you probably know that I'm the leader for the Coalition Forces..." responded the boy shyly.

"Indeed, I did see that from your speech earlier." replied Diana honestly. "Oh, where are my manners? My name is Diana Smith, dear. My brother and I are from Manchester. Now you don't exactly look like a local; where are you from?"

"I'm originally from a small village in Wales, Ms. Smith, but I came here, instructed to teach English to middle school students." replied Negi with the utmost honesty.

"Oh!" Diana quipped in surprise. "Well then, surely you must be beating away the girls with a stick! I can definitely see why, too."

This caught Negi a little off-guard. "I beg your pardon, Ms. Smith?"

Diana pulled Negi into what for the child teacher was an awkward hug, the older woman accidentally pushing the boy's face into the cleavage of her rather considerable endowments.

"You're so adorable, I can't help but want to hug you! And I could do this all day!"

"Please don't. You're going to smother our poor teacher." said Asuna worriedly. Sadly, her words went unheeded as Diana continued to hug Negi, who was turning more blue in the face as time passed.

"Does this happen often?" asked Eric, watching the scene with disbelief.

"More often than it should."

_Poor, lucky bastard._ thought Eric and Katsuro in unison. Thankfully for Negi, Diana had the sense to let him go, or rather, her teammate and best friend Lea 'Gaz' Gasley managed to pry her off of the boy and drag her away to join her team once more.

"-gasp- That was close!" said Negi, taking in a lungful of air. "Any longer, and I'd have passed out!"

"Hey, has anyone seen Sadao-kun?" queried the War Pigs' Designated Marksman Hatano Kaede. "I can't find him anywhere!"

"I haven't seen him." said Katsuro. "Check inside 'Little Boy', he might be doing recon flights before the game starts."

Sure enough, the team's combat support technician was inside the second of their two war vehicles watching a screen that had a live camera feed from one of his radio-controlled scale model aircraft, specifically, a replica of a Rockwell OV-10 Bronco observation/ light attack plane. Like its real-life counterpart, Sadao's replica could easily loiter above a target to observe for a long duration before having to go back and refuel, or, as his replica was electric, recharge. Painstakingly built, Sadao mounted two gun pods that each held a thousand rounds of ammunition, but he wasn't going to use them unless his plane was spotted, an unlikely occurrence since the plane was silent and electric and at the very least was extremely difficult to shoot at because of its relatively small size and maneuverability. As he guided the plane around Library Island's airspace, he began recording video of what his camera was able to observe: enemy positions, points of entry, enemy strength, obstacles, areas of approach, and so on. One thing he did take note of were what appeared to be people carrying RPG-7 anti-tank rocket launchers as well as a number of rocket artillery launcher tubes positioned on parts of the island facing Mahora Lake, as if they were expecting a beach assault. After 5 minutes of observation, he tweaked the flight stick that was wired to his radio control equipment and guided the Bronco out of the airspace and throttled up all the way back to the airfield. As it came in to land, Negi and his squad as well as the War Pigs and UJG members watched in fascination as the landing gears came down and touched smoothly on the tarmac before its engines powered down and moved at taxiing speed past their legs and came to a perfect stop behind the Chevrolet Astro known as 'Little Boy'. Sadao shut down all his R/C gear and played back his recording for review.

Outside 'Little Boy', Negi was surprised to see even more of his students had come to partake in Azure Typhoon. Among them were Nagase Kaede and Ku Fei, two of the most powerful and skilled students he'd ever known. What separated them from the Coalition Forces, however, is that they were on the roster of Poseidon Tactical Incorporated, and hence were not dressed in appropriate camouflage, instead, using tactical gear and body armor worn over civilian clothing and sporting the signature baseball cap.

"Hoi, Negi-sensei!"

"Ah! Kaede-san! Ku-san! You're here too?"

"Of course." replied Kaede. "We're here to assist with the air assault, de gozaru."

"Negi-sensei will need all the help he can get, right? So here we are, aru." added Ku Fei.

"I hate to interrupt this reunion, Negi-taishou, but you'll want to come and see this." announced Sadao, poking his head out of 'Little Boy'. "While we're at it, gather the pilots too. This concerns them as well."

As the pilots (and pretty much everyone else in the air assault) gathered near Little Boy, Sadao pulled out a large monitor mounted on a rolling track and positioned it so that everyone could see, and Negi was given a pointer so that he could specify some particular problems the assault force may run into.

"So as you can see from this video, even our first mission won't be a particularly easy task." stated Negi, pausing at the frame showing the anti-air threats. "Aerial recon of Library Island shows multiple rocket artillery batteries, as well as a minimum of several anti-air gunners armed with Rocket Propelled Grenades. The enemy is going to make this difficult for us. If we fly too high, the RPG's will most likely get us. Nap-of-the-earth flight is also going to be made difficult by that series of rocket artillery batteries on the outer edges of Library Island. On top of that, the bridge to the mainland is heavily defended by a series of machine gun nests and some snipers. We've got our work cut out for us, everyone. Any ideas?"

Dave Smith raised his hand, and Negi pointed to him. "Go ahead, what do you have for us?"

"My group came in with our own long-range rocket artillery. If you want, we can set up our system, called Swordstone, to soften up the enemy rocket artillery batteries and maybe a few of those RPG gunners before the main assault force makes its way in. We just need someone to mark the target area with a GPS transponder." offered the teen.

"We can take care of that, de gozaru." replied Kaede, stepping up. "Me and Ku-san can quickly drop that transponder accurately if we use one of the Little Bird helicopters, and we won't need to slow down. Not with something like this--" she brandished one of her kunai, "--attached to the transponder."

"I sure hope you don't hit anyone with that. It looks kind of dangerous." said David, eyeing the sharp-looking implement.

"Don't worry about my aim, de gozaru. Worry about yours." retorted Kaede smugly.

"Anyway," said Negi, turning everyone's attention back to the monitor, "now that we have the artillery problem solved, we can attack without having to worry as much, save for those RPG gunners. We're still gonna be going in under some very hot conditions, and speed will be key to saving lives here. The initial assault element will attack as one coming in, but will split into Alpha and Bravo elements once the force has arrived on target. Alpha element will be responsible for securing the structure at Library Island itself, so Alpha's job is to clear out the stronghold. Meanwhile, Bravo element presses on and fights all the way to the end of the bridge to the mainland. The organized TAG teams that are here for this event will be split into two, each team contributing to both Alpha and Bravo elements. So first, I would like to address Masayoshi Katsuro-san of the War Pigs."

"I'm all ears." replied the War Pigs leader.

"Katsuro-san, you and 4 other members of your team will be in Bravo element. I believe that Saidan-san, your second in command, can be of more use in securing the structure at Library Island. I gave it some thought, and your attack vehicle-- Fat Man, I believe it was?-- will help greatly in securing the bridge. You'll be flying in on the helicopter that will be carrying it, so you will be landing instead of fast-roping in, unlike a few other chalks. Half your team disembarks to board Fat Man and proceed to the bridge, the rest will be deployed to the stronghold on Library Island." explained Negi.

"If I may, Negi-taishou?" asked Azumi, with an alternative plan. "I request that the Alpha element of our team leave behind two team members in the helicopter to provide sniper cover."

"That's a good idea, actually. Go ahead, I'll allow it. Next, we need to sort out our hostage rescue. Any volunteers for that job?" asked Negi.

"Lea and myself used to rescue hostages during our days in the SRR. We'll take care of that." offered Diana.

"Count us in on that, we've only volunteered to provide artillery support for the Library Island assault, but we'd like to help rescue the hostages if possible." added Eric, volunteering his team for the job.

"You're not the only ones rescuing hostages; we have SWAT-trained team members as well, you know." added a new voice.

_SWAT-trained team members on a TAG team?_ wondered Katsuro. _No way... that means..._

Katsuro snapped his head to look at the source of the voice. Sure enough, standing near an armored SWAT Truck and a Mazda RX-7 Type RZ painted in Japanese police livery was the team known as Gakuen Vice, a police-styled TAG team whose members comprised a special element of the Saint Michael Academy's Disciplinary Committee, led by Ishimura Kaname and Nagame Shinya. The two waved at Katsuro, who acknowledged their presence with a nod of his head.

"Excellent! All that's really needed now is to select some helicopters to help out the rebels. That does it for the briefing." finished Negi. "The rest of the time is yours, but stay ready. The operation will be underway soon."

What followed was a flurry of activity by all the players in the hangar. Magazines were inserted into weapons and checked for proper seating, charging handles were snapped back in preparation for upcoming combat, accessories attached to weapons, and all gear secured and put into place on load-bearing equipment. There was an excitement in the air normally felt only during the annual Mahora Festival, but as one looked around the hangar, smiling faces and eager attitudes were seen amongst all the players, save perhaps, for Hasegawa Chisame, secret identity of the net idol known as 'Chiu'. How she had managed to get roped up in this war game activity was something she couldn't seem to figure out, and she now despaired at the thought of having to pick up her overglorified toy gun (which she couldn't even remember getting) and going into battle amidst a horde of hyperactive students, freaks, and weirdos for 'fun'. It was not her idea of fun, but then again, no one else really shared the opinion. As she absentmindedly packed her chest rig with magazines for her XM8 carbine, she booted up her laptop to check her 'Net Idol Chiu' webpage to check the hits and user comments. So engrossed was Chisame in reading all the praise for her alter-ego that the cynical hacker nearly leapt right out of her uniform and gear when a voice suddenly spoke from behind her.

"Isn't Chiu-sama just the prettiest idol ever?"

As Chisame attempted to calm her heart rate down, she turned to face the person who dared intrude her personal space and potentially expose her secret. The person she ended up meeting was a friendly-looking half-Korean, half-American girl with glasses and medium-length brown hair. Chisame wasn't sure what to make of her, but for the moment, chose to tolerate her company.

"I'm sorry if I scared you, but I couldn't help but notice that you were looking at Chiu-sama's webpage." said the girl.

"I-it's all right." replied Chisame, looking for a way to disguise her other identity before quickly finding an easy out. "I'm a loyal fan, too."

"Ah, I became a fan when I stumbled onto her blog about a year ago. Ah! I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself! I'm Quinn Mae Johnston. You can just call me Quinn."

_Oh, a foreigner._ thought Chisame with some irritation. "I'm Hasegawa Chisame. I guess you're here for this event, huh Quinn-san?"

"Partly." replied Quinn, gesturing to her weapons and gear. "Another reason I'm here is to meet Chiu-sama and get her autograph."

"Huh?" asked Chisame, genuinely surprised. She had never planned to appear as Chiu at this ridiculous event.

"Don't you know? She posted some promotional material on her webpage and blog about Azure Typhoon! She even said something about participating, and then there's also this picture of Chiu-sama in her planned loadout!"

Before Chisame could protest, Quinn had hijacked her laptop and scrolled to the latest blog post and showed the picture to her.

_Oh my god! What the hell was I thinking?! **Was** I even thinking, or conscious when this happened?!_ thought Chisame, panicking as she saw the photo. Sure enough, there was her alter-ego, dressed in a somewhat saucier version of her current uniform, lacking glasses and sporting longer hair, but everything else was pretty much the same, from the insignia, to the tactical gear, right down to the weapon she was carrying: an XM8 carbine.

"I can't wait to see her on the battlefield! But I really want to be there for her autograph session, too..." hoped Quinn.

"When is the autograph session?" asked Chisame, somewhat apprehensively.

"It's during the intermission after the second evolution of the day, after that, it'll be the night game, which I'm probably gonna get dragged into. My team specializes at stealth-type missions, and pretty much all of us have night-vision goggles."

"You guys must be pretty serious about this sort of thing. What's your role, Quinn-san?"

"I'm the team sniper and IT specialist. Anything that can be done with a computer, I've been there and done that."

"Including hacking?"

"Hell, that's what I'm doing half the time in a typical match for my team. I hack security cameras and give them the heads-up where they need it."

"I don't buy that for a second." challenged Chisame. "Show me proof."

"Fine then, I'll hack... the broadcasting system!"

Quinn pulled out the laptop she brought with her, opened the screen, and in a matter of seconds, her fingers were a blur on the keyboard as prompt windows opened and closed, her eyes rapidly scanning through lines of code. Then finally, she stopped typing and ended her work by hitting the enter key. Within seconds, loudspeakers all over the airfield were piping through the most infamous work of Rick Astley, 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. As soon as the song got into full swing, a great many people either laughed, shouted 'Rickroll!' or groaned in exasperation.

"You... You magnificent bitch, you." praised Chisame, in amusement at the other girl's skill.

"I know, I'm awesome, aren't I? I better turn this off, or people are gonna get pissed." replied Quinn, shutting down the program and ending the music.

"I better go back to my team, then. The game is going to start soon. It was nice meeting you, Chisame-san."

"Likewise, Quinn-san. Good luck out there."

The two parted ways, leaving Chisame to figure out how she was going to solve the problem of Chiu's appearance in the evening.

--------------

Inside the cabin of a UH-1 Iroquois transport helicopter parked on the airfield's tarmac, Negi secured a number of Vietnam-style magazines for his Tokyo Marui XM177E1 carbine to his supplied PanTac MOLLE Rhodesian Recon Vest's attached magazine pouches. Because they were designed in the shape of the Vietnam-era 20 round magazines, Negi was able to fit up to 14 magazines where only 8 30-round magazines would've fit. Furthermore, he was not suffering for ammunition, as the magazines were an equal mix of 130-round mid-capacity magazines and 190-round high-capacity magazines. And in case he had to switch to a backup weapon, Ayaka had been kind enough to supply him with a brand-new Tokyo Marui FN Five-seveN gas blowback pistol to fill his tactical thigh holster.

As Negi closed the magazine pouches on his chest rig, he picked up his XM177 and aimed the silencer-shaped flash hider out the door at an imaginary target. Lining up his sights, he temporarily lowered the weapon and pulled back the charging handle to disable the locking mechanism on the trigger. Sighting in again, he visualized the target, lined the sights with its center of mass, and upon sliding the fire selector to SEMI, dry-fired the weapon. His visualization of his target reacted with a small hole appearing dead-center. Then with a sigh, he put his weapon down.

"No matter how good I think I am, I don't know how I'll really do out there, in live combat." said Negi to himself. "I'm almost afraid to go out there and try to lead my troops to victory. I mean, with Eva-sensei leading the MRG... How am I gonna stand up against her?"

"Negi-taishou, stop worrying about us. We can handle ourselves, and do remember we've had more experience in this field. I know I shouldn't be insubordinate, and I mean no offense, but if you're stuck on what to do, ask us if you need help." said Katsuro, having overheard Negi's laments. "We'll rely on you for help in return, as well. We don't know this area, and you probably have more knowledge of it than we do. Not to mention, I heard you led all the Mages against the Martians in the previous battle event here at Mahora. With that much under your belt, I'm sure you'll make a capable leader. Instead of worrying your head off about how formidable the enemy may or may not be, concentrate on fighting to win and remember the fact that you have your friends, us, and a loyal army of students to back you up."

"You're right, Masayoshi-san." replied Negi, his confidence restored. "I'm glad you gave me this pep talk. It really helps me focus a bit."

"Anytime, Negi-taishou. And please, you can call me Katsuro."

"I understand, Katsuro-sa--"

Negi and Katsuro were interrupted when the P.A. system crackled to life once again as Ayaka's voice flowed through the loudspeakers.

"Attention all players, the pre-game waiting period is now over. As of 0900 local time, Operation Azure Typhoon is underway. Game on, Game on, Game on! May the best team win the war!"

"That's our cue." said Katsuro. "Just wait here, your friends should be here soon. Good luck out there."

As Katsuro ran off to board his team's helicopter, a flight crew came running to prepare Negi's for takeoff, running a fast pre-flight check and removing safety pins necessary to start up the helicopter. Across the tarmac, many other helicopters were doing the same, but one helicopter was already in the air. An MD-500 carrying Kaede and Ku Fei lifted off of the runway and set a course for Library Island. Meanwhile, Dave scrambled to the edge of the runway along with his fellow artillery crewman, Adrian Murray, to set up Swordstone. As soon as its tracking system was online, they shoved an 'Armageddon' round down the muzzle and prepared it for launch. The pandemonium was underway now as waves of eager players rushed to their transport helicopters. Looking out the doorway of his 'Huey', Negi could easily spot which helicopter was Katsuro's, watching it hover over a very powerful and heavily-armed SUV as crewmen on the ground rigged up a carrying harness.

As he watched this, Asuna, Konoka, and Setsuna all boarded the helicopter, followed, strangely enough, by Chisame. A few other random students hopped on, and as soon as they were at maximum capacity, Negi's helicopter lifted off the tarmac and led what would become a formation flight of Hueys, Chinooks, and Little Birds on approach to Library Island.

--------------

Ahead of the formation was Kaede and Ku Fei in the solitary scout Little Bird. They were flying low and fast over the water, the landing skids barely grazing the surface of Lake Mahora. Ku had her ARES TAR-21 Tavor at the ready to cover Kaede, who would be throwing Swordstone's GPS targeting transponder into the ground where the rocket artillery batteries were. She attached the transponder to one of her kunai in order to make sure it stayed in the right place instead of rolling off. Her supplied SIG 556 carbine was slung on her back, unused for the moment.

"How much longer to the target?" Kaede asked.

"30 seconds. Prepare to deploy." replied the pilot. Kaede nodded, and then switched her radio to a certain frequency. "Swordstone Fire Control, this is Shinobi. Do you read, over?"

"We read you, Shinobi. Turn on the transponder so that we know it's working, over."

Kaede flicked the switch on the transponder, and a red LED indicated that the power to the transponder was on.

"Swordstone Fire Control, are you receiving the signal, over?"

"Affirmative, Shinobi. Alert us when the transponder is deployed. Over."

"Solid Copy, Swordstone. Deploying transponder in 20 seconds..."

The Little Bird helicopter was beginning to gain altitude as it neared Library Island. The rocket artillery began to fire, as did a few RPG gunners. It took almost suicidal airspeed and hair-trigger maneuvering to avoid the incoming salvo that began to detonate brilliantly all around them, the simulated RPG rounds bursting like flares. Thankfully, the Little Bird, being a light scout helicopter, had no trouble with these requirements and admirably kept its occupants out of harm's way.

"Five seconds...four...three...two...one! Transponder is deployed, over!"

Kaede flung the device in her hands the moment her helicopter passed over the rocket batteries. The kunai, with its slender point, pierced the ground smoothly, rooting the GPS transponder in place. Ku Fei kept Kaede covered, shooting off bursts from her Tavor to keep their enemies' heads down as they banked hard and away from Library Island.

"Solid copy, Shinobi. Target locked and firing for effect. Swordstone out."

Back at the Coalition Forces airfield, Dave and Adrian covered their ears as the M203 propulsion round went off with a loud bang, sending the rocket on its way. After two seconds of unassisted flight, the rocket motor ignited and the projectile soared into the sky. The motor boosted the rocket past 500 feet, past 1000, past 1000, and finally, the motor burned out at approximately 1500 feet AGL (Above Ground Level). As the nose of the rocket led the descent toward the ground, servos mounted on the tailfins guided the rocket into position on the GPS transponder's location. The free-falling rocket homed in on the transponder, and then upon arriving to a certain altitude....

BOOM

The Mk 9 Thunderflash grenade simulator encased within the body of the rocket exploded with violent force, sending the BB's encased around if flying in a maelstrom of plastic death as they pummeled hit vests and sensors of anything and anyone within the blast radius. A second Armageddon rocket followed quickly, than a third, and fourth, and fifth. The short volley swept the location of all the artillery batteries thanks to minor adjustments in aim by the Excalibur's firing crew, and with those few rounds, the artillery batteries were billowing red smoke as a sign that they had been put out of commission. But they didn't end the artillery fire there. Having a general idea of where the RPG gunners were in relation to the Artillery batteries, the two-man crew at Swordstone Fire Control programmed their next rounds to land a few meters forward of the GPS transponder's location and then shoved some of their new airburst rounds down the muzzle of the launcher. These were fired off one after another in quick succession, and the approaching formation of helicopters watched the effects as puffs of smoke or gas burst over Library Island, indicating the delivery of the rockets' payload.

"Damn, Swordstone has those bastards right on the mark!" exclaimed Katsuro. Then, over the helicopter's combination radio/intercom, Negi's voice crackled to life.

"It seems I was right to have them soften up the enemy. War Pigs, one of you is responsible for psyops (Psychological Operations). Shall we start this dance, over?"

Charlie noted that this was his cue, and so he gladly replied. "Affirmative, sir. Time to tango with the enemy, over."

Charlie had hooked up an MP3 player to a number of loudspeakers mounted on outriggers on either side of the helicopter. Set to a playlist of adrenaline-pumping 'War Tracks', Charlie turned up the volume and pressed the play button, and the opening rhythm of Motorhead's 'Ace of Spades' heralded their opening action for this massive war game. At once, the Little Bird gunships in the formation streaked forward and opened fire with mounted M134 miniguns. Transport gunship versions of their Hueys tossed in their own licks, firing off quadruple M60 mounts on either side of the helicopter in addition to lighting up the enemies below with 40mm shower shells from their chin-mounted grenade launcher turrets converted for TAG usage. As each transport helicopter got closer to the island, door gunners started opening up as well, with a mix of bungee-mounted M60 machine guns, M240 machine guns, M249 SAWs, an occasional minigun here and there, and players who sat in the doorway with their feet dangling off the sides of their helicopter began pouring down fire. The fight quickly became intense as helicopters began receiving return fire from the ground below, both by personal small arms and emplaced weapons. As 'Ace of Spades' continued to play, it provided an excellent soundtrack to the chaos as the transports quickly began slowing down and orbiting, waiting for a chance to stop as other transports dropped off their cargo via fast rope technique. As soon as the heavy 40mm ropes were detached, the empty helicopters flew off to join the orbiting pattern and provide aerial fire support while others took their places to let off their cargo.

-----------

Negi's chalk was one of the first ones to release its cargo of troops. As soon as Asuna was on the ground, ready to cover him, he followed her and moved quickly to cover while Konoka and Setsuna followed. A lot of ammunition was flying past their heads right now, both friendly and unfriendly. Asuna and Setsuna served their purposes mainly as bodyguards. It didn't make sense for Negi to be out here on the front lines when he was probably the most important target of the enemy, considering he was essentially the general of the Coalition Forces. Setsuna had her duty to protect her ojou-sama, whether it be in a real-life situation or a war game. Konoka's importance was that she was a medic, and could quickly return 'dying' players to battle within 30 crucial seconds. All the more important should the enemy score a hit on Negi.

Despite her heavy weapon not being suited to the role, Asuna took point as they scrambled inwards towards the heavier fighting. They were making their way towards the main building on Library Island when Negi's eyes caught movement towards them. His glance caught five figures carrying AK-series weapons, and they did not look friendly in the least.

"Contact left! Nine o' clock high!" shouted Negi. With synchronized precision, the four of them turned and ripped into the enemy with a hailstorm of white plastic that dropped the five MRG players before they could react.

"Tangoes down!" announced Asuna. "Keep moving!"

The small squad continued their progress towards the library, having successfully dispatched their enemies in their first contact of the game.

-----------

On another part of Library Island, the War Pigs' Huey hovered and gently set down 'Fat Man' on the ground while half the team roped out. The moment their feet touched the ground, the ropes were detached and Fat Man was quickly detached from the helicopter as it flew off to deposit the remainder of the team on the library building. 'Bravo' element moved fast, unfastening the harness used to secure Fat Man to the fuselage of the Huey before piling in. As Charlie's main weapon was a sniper rifle, he stayed behind to find an overwatch position in order to protect Fat Man and its occupants from unseen threats as they secured the bridge. His spotter, Ohtsuka Nana, stayed with him, and both of them quickly searched for a relatively secure vantage point. They quickly found one in the form of an abandoned barricade and wasted no time in setting up their position. Nana and Charlie strung together a noisemaker trap that would alert them in case someone was coming up from behind while they were sniping. Charlie finally set up his VSR-10 sniper rifle, flipped open the scope covers, and reported in to Katsuro.

"Bravo Actual, this is Bravo Rifle. I'm in position, over."

"Copy that, Bravo Rifle. Do you see any threats, over?"

"Stand by, Bravo Actual. Over." replied Charlie, turning to his spotter. "Got anything, Nana-chan?"

"At our 12... there's two towers about 75 meters away. Left tower has a Tango with a Dragunov, right tower has a PKM nest." replied Nana, watching the scene through her spotting scope.

"My spotter counts zero-two Tangoes at our 12, Bravo Actual. There will be two towers. One has a sniper with a Dragunov, the other one has a PKM. Request permission to engage, over."

"Granted, Bravo Rifle. Engage the targets specified. Over."

Charlie released his radio earpiece and concentrated on the task at hand. Nana called in all the variables.

"Your rifle is set to fifty-percent hop, wind is west-northwest, 5 MPH. Target is stationary."

Charlie adjusted his aim so that the crosshairs on his scope rested some ways below and to the right of his target.

"Firing." he squeezed the trigger, a dull pop the only indicator that the rifle had discharged. Charlie watched through the scope as the BB he fired lifted slightly and curved directly into the eye protection of his target. That counted as an incurable head shot, so a medic would not be able to bring the player back into battle from the field.

"Hit." Nana confirmed.

Charlie cycled the bolt on his VSR and adjusted his aim to get the machine gunner in his sights, adjusted for wind and hop-up, and fired again.

"Hit."

"Bravo Rifle to Bravo Actual, Tangoes are down, red carpet is out. Good hunting, over."

"Solid copy, Bravo Rifle. There's not much more range on that rifle of yours, however. Go and assist Alpha element, provide sniper assistance wherever it suits you. We'll take care of the bridge, over."

"Roger, Bravo Actual. Bravo Rifle is Oscar Mike."

As Charlie and Nana moved off, Fat Man and its occupants spearheaded the advance to the bridge, with a number of troops following behind the vehicle as rolling cover. Katsuro drove while his teammates manned the vehicle's three weapons. Suddenly, an RPG simulator streaked out towards them. The troops behind them moved well out of the way as Katsuro gunned the engine in a successful bid to avoid the rocket as it streaked just over the vehicle. Futago Kyo, who had been manning Fat Man's powerful dual M134 minigun mount, swiveled the weapon mount and unleashed a twenty second sweeping burst from at the RPG's source. Fellow troops from Bravo element surged forward to engage enemy forces guarding the bridge while Fat Man provided them with fire support. This onslaught sent some of the enemy running for safety as the Coalition Forces advanced on the bridge. If the MRG was to stand their ground, they would need more support.

----------------

At the MRG base, cries for help were heard coming from the radio link to the Library Island stronghold. Chachamaru heard them all and turned to the MRG leader.

"Eva-sama, our men are in need of assistance. May I go and provide it?"

"You may, Chachamaru." replied Evangeline. "Crush the enemy."

"As you wish."

With that, Chachamaru activated her back-mounted rocket boosters and flew off towards the Library Island bridge. En route, she checked to make sure that all her weapons systems were online and calibrated her targeting. It would be at least 15 minutes until she arrived at the bridge, and she had to make sure she was ready.

---------------

"This sucks." said Asuna, hunkering down behind an abandoned barricade with her squad.

"We should have been more careful." said Setsuna, clutching her HK416.

"Is there anyway we can make it out of here?" asked Negi. The squad was pinned down by a machine gun nest, and all that stood between them and having to go back to respawn were sandbags used to form the barricade. Suddenly his earpiece was occupied by the sound of Charlie's voice.

"Alpha Actual, this is Bravo Rifle. You look like you're in need of assistance, over. We have eyes on the enemy. Request permission to engage, over."

"Granted, Bravo Rifle. Please get us out of this situation, over." replied Negi. No sooner had he finished speaking when down went the machine gunner, and Charlie and Nana revealed themselves, making a simple wave of their hands. Negi and his squad gave them a thumbs-up before continuing.

"I'm glad they're on our side." said Asuna. "That boy and his partner can wreak just as much damage as Mana did during the Martians vs Mages war."

"Alpha Actual, this is Alpha Two." said Azumi's voice over the radio. "We're ready to breach, over."

"Go and do it, Alpha Two." replied Negi. "We'll follow your squad in, over."

A noticeable explosion was heard as a breaching charge was set off, breaking open the locked door to the library. Azumi and her entry team threw in flashbang simulators that went off as soon as they hit the floor, disorienting anyone inside within earshot. The breaching team quickly moved inside, Negi's squad following as soon as they reached the entrance. Despite the ear-shattering bang of the flashbang simulators, Azumi and Negi's squads were beset by an ambush from all sides. It took Asuna's monstrous strength and Setsuna's swordsmanship skills to turn the ambush around on the enemy. Setsuna's plastic katana deflected incoming rounds while Asuna managed to fire her M60 one-handed while she clutched a nearby folding table as a BB shield. Thankfully, the ambush was over quickly, but not without one victim of the chaos. CQB specialist Takara Yumi had been hit by a solitary stray round and her vest was beginning to tighten. It was somewhat uncomfortable, but to players of TAG, it meant that they were dead or dying. As such, the vest conspired to restrict her movement in a manner that would not easily let her get up from the floor.

"I'm down." Yumi announced somewhat weakly. Konoka rushed into action, putting aside her Tokyo Marui MP7 and retrieving her defibrillator set from her medic bag. Powering up the two 'shock paddles', she applied them to Yumi's vest approximately around the chest area shouted "Clear!" and pressed the 'discharge' buttons on the paddles simultaneously. A small 'thump' could be heard, and Yumi's vest loosened its grip on her abdomen.

"Thanks, Konoka-san. You're a real lifesaver." said Yumi gratefully.

"No problem, Yumi-san." replied Konoka with a smile.

"So was that it for the indoor element?" asked Asuna, not noticing anyone else going after them while they were inside the library. "You would think the enemy would've had a higher concentration of their troops in here than outside."

"We better check. That was too easy." said Azumi, bringing her AKS-74U to the low ready position. "Split up and sweep the area."

Despite five minutes of thorough searching, they found that there were no more enemies to deal with. As they regrouped, Azumi was about to comment on the relative ease with which they took the library when her radio went berserk with the unmistakable panic of Katsuro's voice.

"Alpha Actual, Alpha Two! This is Bravo Actual! Requesting assistance at the bridge soonest! We are under heavy fire and--"

The transmission was cut short by an explosion and then static. Azumi's gut turned to stone. Any sudden loss of communication with Katsuro could only mean something terrible had happened, and whether it was for dramatic purposes or realism, she knew she had to help them.

"Negi-taishou, raise Bravo Rifle and have them get to the bridge! I don't know what has happened to Katsuro-kun, but when I lost contact with him, there was an explosion! Please, we have to go and help them!" pleaded a panic-stricken Azumi.

"You don't have to tell me twice. Alpha Actual and Two, move out now!" replied Negi, then getting on his radio. "Bravo Rifle, Bravo Rifle, this is Alpha Actual..."

-------------

On the bridge, Katsuro, his best friend, Peter Drake, and Kyo were all hunkered down behind what was previously the functional and deadly 'Fat Man'. However, Chachamaru's arrival to assist her fellow troops proved to be a major trump card. Any doubts about her true identity were eradicated when the android came flying in unleashing hell from enough weapons to rival a small naval force. With shoulder-mounted rocket batteries, forearm-mounted handheld M134 custom miniguns, leg-mounted 40mm grenade launchers, helmet-mounted precision auto-cannons, and a pair of hopper-fed gas blowback machine pistols, Chachamaru had become a flying humanoid weapons platform that the Ork race would've been proud of. She wasted no time in cutting down a considerable bulk of the Coalition Forces assault element, and when Kyo, manning the dual minigun mount on Fat Man dared to oppose her, Chachamaru sent a volley of rocket simulators at Fat Man, disabling the vehicle with ease. As it billowed red smoke, her built-in IR sensors detected the three boys taking cover behind the disabled vehicle and continued to fire at them with her right-hand minigun. The .28 gram sniper-grade ammunition hit the windows of Fat Man relentlessly, and Katsuro was less than thrilled to see the safety glass beginning to spiderweb from the force of the BB's. With the radio inside the vehicle disabled anyway, he had no way of contacting help unless he had a nearby radioman. And the nearest radioman was currently lying frozen on the ground where Chachamaru's initial kill zone had been, and said radioman dared not move out of sheer terror from the miniguns' godlike ability to smite anything it saw as unpleasant. Katsuro knew the difference in being brave and being stupid (at least in this situation) and grudgingly stayed put, waiting for rescue that may or may not come.

In the air above them, the cavalry attempted to rescue Bravo Actual from their predicament as two Little Bird gunships rolled in to engage Chachamaru, their outrigger-mounted miniguns ablaze. Despite their best efforts, however, dealing with them was child's play for Chachamaru, who dispatched the two helicopters under withering fire from her miniguns and helmet-mounted auto-cannons, sending the two helicopters flying as quickly as they could back to the Coalition Forces base billowing red smoke. No sooner had Chachamaru dealt with those threats than when several BB's whizzed by her head, nearly going down the barrel of one of her autocannons. Her targeting system found Hatano Kaede trying to dispatch her using her own skills as a designated marksman.

In the War Pigs' helicopter, the team's Designated 'Markswoman' churned through a high-capacity magazine to help Katsuro and the crew of Fat Man escape or advance while she kept the MRG's most devastating soldier distracted. As her weapon ran dry, she flicked the magazine release, looking to reload, when she was suddenly struck with great force in her head and chest. The force was enough to knock her to the floor of the Huey's cabin, and immediately, Sadao made the decision to call a tactical retreat.

"That girl with all the weapons ain't joking around. We gotta get back to base, there's no way we'll survive against her."

"Roger that." replied the pilot, quickly changing course. With much haste, the Huey turned and flew back to the base so that H. Kaede would be able to respawn, and more importantly, he had other methods that would help bring the Coalition Forces closer to achieving the objective.

Chachamaru watched as the helicopter flew away, satisfied that she had deterred the enemy. Turning to her fellow troops below, she gave them an order.

"Now is the time for a counterattack. I have reduced their fighting strength; take hold of this oppurtunity."

With those words, the MRG forces began to advance towards the front lines of the Coalition Forces.

---------------

Back with Katsuro and company, Azumi was relieved to see that he was okay. It was quickly explained that once Fat Man was disabled, the power to the radio had been cut off, preventing him from transmitting any further. But that fact was quickly put aside as they strained to figure out how they were going to evacuate the 'dead' when they were under so much risk of being torn up by Chachamaru's overpowered weaponry. Really, the only problem they had was her. If they could put her out of play until the next respawn, there was a definite guarantee that they could accomplish their objective. Their strategic discussion was suddenly interrupted when more Swordstone rockets delivered their payload, raining plastic on the advancing MRG force as well as a stunned Chachamaru. The android was placed on the defensive as she weaved hard to avoid the cloudbursts of BB's that would remove her from play.

"Bravo Actual, this is Alpha Support. Looks like you guys are gonna need some help, over." came Sadao's voice over Azumi's Radio. Katsuro immediately took the handset.

"Keep up the fire, Alpha support. We've got some casualties to extract, over." replied Katsuro before contacting Nagase Kaede and Ku Fei. "Shinobi, how are you for ammo?"

"I still have enough, de gozaru. I assume you'll want our assistance, Bravo Actual?" replied Kaede in her easygoing tone.

"It would be appreciated, Shinobi. Over and out."

The Coalition Forces boldly surged forward with Kyo, Ryo, Setsuna, and Asuna as the tip of the spear. They shoved forward with automatic fire and incoming bullet deflection as a platoon of Coalition forces troops were diverted to extracting casualties from the battle in order to have a healthy respawn force. Trusting in the skill of their pilot, N. Kaede and Ku Fei harassed Chachamaru with rifle fire and flit about in the helicopter to avoid being tracked and hit by Chachamaru's weapons. CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters flew in to collect the downed players and lift them back to base for respawn without getting hit thanks to the combined actions of Alpha and Bravo Actual as well as 'Shinobi' and her partner. The time was long coming for a decisive final blow to Chachamaru, but no one knew how it would come. The last thing anyone expected was for Chachamaru's flight capabilities to be hampered by the hacking skills of one Hasegawa Chisame, who had hooked up her laptop to a signal transmitter that isolated the frequency of Chachamaru's flight boosters and sent them a kill signal. Working quickly, she gathered the frequency of Chachamaru's weapons systems as well as those of the MRG nearby and sent them all back to the base. She keyed her radio and spoke into the microphone. "This is Idol Actual. Alpha Support and Spook, I leave the rest to you. Over and out."

"Copy, Idol Actual. Commencing final attack." replied Sadao at base. Next to him was Quinn, attaching a special grenade to Sadao's OV-10 Bronco before setting it down on the runway. Sadao tapped a key on his laptop and it took off autonomously, following a pre-set flight plan he had programmed into it not mere seconds ago. He turned his attention to a much bigger replica sitting in the hangar and took control of it with his radio transmitter. A replica of a B-52 bomber the size of a pickup truck, loaded with medium-sized cruise missiles, taxied to the runway where it built full power with its miniature turbofan engines before taking off down the runway and into the air. Sadao tracked its progress through a TV screen attached to his transmitter. He had but one shot at this. If he failed, their only remaining trump card would have to be played, and given the nature of this game, he did not want to reveal it this early.

---------------

Back at the bridge, a now flightless Chachamaru held her ground against the Coalition forces with what remaining ammunition she had. Her rocket batteries spent, she discarded them to reduce weight as she blazed forth with her miniguns and autocannons. Unfortunately for her, Setsuna was forcing her to waste much of her ammunition whereas the former had yet to fire a shot. All too quickly her miniguns were exhausted, and she dropped these as well, unholstering her last-ditch Glock 18 machine pistols, racking both slides to make sure a round was in the chamber before firing. Suddenly, a miniature OV-10 Bronco flew by overhead, dropping a canister that quickly burst into many tiny pieces of aluminum and ionized dust. Chachamaru attempted to fire her weapons, met only with locked triggers. Her autocannons were likewise nonfunctional and an error message flashed across her eye protection visor. The message only consisted of two words: SHOT LOCK.

While Chachamaru quickly realized this was a weapons jamming signal, she did not see the B-52 streaking towards her and her troops, launching a hail of miniature cruise missiles that dropped down , and upon contact with her and her troops, burst, delivering their payload of 1000 BB's per missile. In short order, Karakuri Chachamaru, feared weapon of the Mahorastan Revolutionary Guards, and several hundred of her loyal troops were cut down in a brilliant use of tactical air power by the Coalition Forces. With their path cleared, they surged forward, joined by N. Kaede and Ku Fei as their helicopter touched down to let them off to join the advance to secure the bridge completely. There was a bit more contact as they made their way to the mainland exit of the bridge, and the two contractor players coped with it, adopting a leapfrog pattern that synchronized with the Coalition Forces leading squads. Plenty more ammunition was expended, and when Ku Fei ran dry on ammunition, N. Kaede still had some to spare and tossed her two mid-cap magazines. The two were blessed in that their supplied weapons accepted M4/M16 magazines and therefore could trade magazines with one another in a pinch. The advancing Coalition Forces ripped through MRG lines like children through wrapping paper on Christmas day. The training they had undertaken of their own accord paid off, and in combat, it had become automatic to use the techniques they taught themselves. For instance, the moment Asuna's M60 had finally run dry after shooting short controlled bursts for so long, she ducked down on one knee to swap out the box magazine on her weapon for a fresh one. Negi automatically stepped in front of her, firing his XM177E1 to give his partner cover. Asuna, meanwhile, had practiced fast magazine changes with her cumbersome weapon, and it took no longer than five seconds for her to reload her weapon. As soon as she pulled the charging handle, she slapped Negi lightly on his leg, and the boy stepped behind her as she took up firing position once again. These small details allowed them to function with maximum efficiency in combat, and it helped them finally reach the end of the bridge. Azumi and her squad wasted no time in clearing out the checkpoint at the mainland end of the bridge. Once it was secure, she gave the 'All Clear' signal and Negi fished a certain something out of his gear. Folded into a triangle was a Coalition Forces flag, indicated by its blue color and signature globe with crossed swords insignia. Azumi wheeled down the MRG flag and hoisted the Coalition Forces Flag. As if flapped proudly in the breeze, the players on the bridge whooped and cheered, some succumbing to the temptation of firing their weapons into the air in the practice known as 'Arab Fireworks'. Negi grinned and reported in via radio.

"Alpha Actual to HQ. Mission accomplished, over."

"Solid Copy, Alpha Actual. Systems confirm flag is in place." replied an event official on the other end. "That makes 300 points for the Coalition Forces, in addition to about several hundred points worth of enemy kills. Good start, you guys. Keep it up. Over and out."

Negi smiled and went to check in on his other forces. "Charlie Actual, this is Alpha Actual. How is the jail assault going, over?"

"We're retreating! The enemy has too powerful a weapon for the FMA to deal with, over!" replied a pilot.

Negi was shocked. Another weapon? One worse than a fully-armed Chachamaru? "How bad are the casualties? How many were killed, over?"

"That's just it, Alpha Actual! The enemy managed to repulse the FMA rebels with a part psychological, part chemical weapon! No one got killed, but as soon as that weapon was used, all the FMA piled back onto the helicopters and we had to get them out of there!"

_What?_ wondered Negi. _Half psychological, half chemical weapon? I never knew such a weapon existed!_

Just then, Akashi Yuna's voice came over the radio. Instead of her usual boisterous confidence, the voice in her message was one full of embarrassment.

"Eh, Alpha Actual, this is Red Five. If it's not too much to ask, could you please have some spare clothing waiting for us at the airbase? A lot of my troops and myself are feeling awfully drafty in these helicopters, over."

Negi finally understood the connotations of her message and blushed a little. "Solid Copy, Red Five. I'll scrounge up some uniforms for you and your troops. Over and out."

**To Be Continued**

* * *

With the success of the assault on Library Island, the Coalition forces are off to an excellent start. But what of their other missions? How did the FMA prison assault render them stripped (figuratively and literally) of their fighting power? And what of the hostages being held by the MRG? Also, how has Poseidon Tactical managed to operate in the theater so far? All these questions and more will be answered in the next chapter, **Escalation**!


	4. 3: Escalation

**Plastic Bullet Frenzy!**

**A Negima! Magister Negi Magi fanfiction**

**Synopsis: **Encouraged by positive feedback from the attendees of the Mahora Festival's 'Martians vs Mages' event, Yukihiro Ayaka organizes another such massive event, one that is open to not just students and faculty, but visitors and players from around the world! Dubbed Operation: Azure Typhoon, this massive wargaming event utilizes the system known as TAG, or Tactical Action Gaming, as a means of waging battle. With four massive factions (including NPC's) and the entire Mahora Academy grounds as their battlefield, this event promises to be a rollicking good time for all involved. Crossover with story 'Crossfire: Tactical Action Gaming'

Disclaimer: Author retains no ownership of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, which is property of Ken Akamatsu and Kodansha. All trademarks featured herein are copyright their respective owners.f

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**Chapter 3: Escalation**

"_Attention all players, the pre-game waiting period is now over. As of 0900 local time, Operation Azure Typhoon is underway. Game on, Game on, Game on! May the best team win the war!"_

As Azure Typhoon finally got rolling, members of the Free Mahorastan Alliance piled into a number of technicals, pickups, and 2.5 ton trucks and made their way out of the Mahora Forest as Akashi Yuna led a small force of her fellow rebels to mount an assault on a makeshift prison where MRG forces were holding FMA sympathizers under lock and key. As far as Yuna's situation was concerned, these prisoners had to be freed if a newly democratic Mahorastan was to function smoothly. Thankfully, the FMA rebels were not alone in their endeavor to release their country from the grip of a corrupt, oppressive government. The FMA had been promised air support, and sure enough, they were getting it, and Yuna waved to the pilots of the Huey and Little Bird gunships and transports that flew overhead bearing the markings of the Coalition Forces. The air support overhead would provide additional firepower and assist the assault on the prison while the Rebels on the ground went toe to toe with MRG infantry. As they neared the prison's perimeter, Yuna issued the order to charge, and the technicals and pickups surged forward full-throttle, any and every weapon aboard ablaze, with the 2.5 ton trucks not far behind. As the rebels aboard each vehicle dismounted to storm the prison walls, the gunships in the air swooped down to lay down suppressive fire on the guards within the vicinity. Halfway to actually reaching the prison walls, Yuna happened to notice an off feature about the guards: they were all wearing gas masks. When she heard the sound of a rocket soon after comprehending this fact, her eyes widened as her realization came full circle.

"RETREAT! THE ENEMY IS USING CHEMICAL WEAPONS!"

The warning was a case of too little, too late. As her fellow rebels turned, some not quite hearing the message, the rockets impacted and released their potentially deadly payload. The most any of the rebels could do was place cloth over their mouths and noses to avoid breathing in any of the pink mist-like particles that were spewed from canisters mounted in each rocket. Strangely enough, Yuna couldn't feel any adverse effects from the rockets' payload.

_It's not teargas... not even smoke. What kind of weapon is this if it doesn't even make my eyes water?_

Yuna's wonders were answered when she heard a slow tearing noise and a slight tingle on her upper thigh. For the second time in the span of a few minutes, her eyes widened in shock when she saw that her momentary exposure to the mist was already causing her clothes to be eaten away. In her mind, Yuna panicked; there was no worse way to fight than when one was wearing next to nothing. Grudgingly, she called for her troops to fall back. The MRG clearly wanted them humiliated before defeat, but she would not allow the enemy that satisfaction, even if it meant running away with their tails between their legs. Besides, this was one battle out of many. A loss now might remove points from them, but so long as they succeeded in their other missions, this would be insignificant. As her comrades took cover behind their vehicles to shield their mostly unclothed bodies from enemy fire, Yuna tossed a Red Smoke grenade at the prison walls to mark the attack position for the gunships. Behind her, she tossed out a blue flare to mark an emergency pickup zone. Pilots flying transport Hueys, expecting to pickup prisoners, took note of this and its incongruity with the mission timetable.

"Red Five, this is Charlie Actual. You can't possibly have rescued all the prisoners already. Why did you pop smoke, over?"

asked the lead Huey pilot.

"Charlie Actual, We've been hit hard down here with chemical weapons. We can't evac the prisoners the way we are now. Unless of course, you pilots are a bunch of perverts who think that chemical rockets sent to destroy our clothing is a godsend. Like it or not, I will not allow my comrades to suffer the indignity of fighting the enemy in our skivvies! Now land that bird and get us out of here, over!" replied Yuna.

Knowing better than to disobey a direct order and jeopardize the partnership between the FMA and Coalition Forces, the pilots of the transports landed, and the rebels were quick to pile on. The gunships, still loaded with plenty of ammo, were there to provide cover fire for the transports' retreat. For Yuna, the retreat was necessary, even if it cost them several hundred points. No amount of points, in her book, was worth losing dignity over. As Negi checked in on Charlie Actual, she soon took the opportunity to notify her ally and teacher of her situation.

----------------

Meanwhile, on a main artery of Mahora's roads, a convoy of MRG vehicles, composed of armored cars, gun buggies, and a few ventilated tractor trailers, made its way down a two-way street. The ventilated trailers contained a number of hostages, many of them civilians. Among them were ace war correspondent Asakura Kazumi, her assistant and best friend Aisaka Sayo, and her entire camera and sound crew. For the MRG's security purposes, their equipment was confiscated before they were shoved roughly into the trailer with a number of other hostages, mainly 'westerners' doing business in the region. Fortunately for them, the MRG's worst nightmare was already in place to save them. A contingent of Coalition Forces Special Operations troops, comprised of three specialized platoons, had been given intelligence leaked from field agents infiltrating the MRG concerning the route of the convoy. Equipped with the knowledge of the convoy's route, the 'operators' laid an ambush along the deserted, secretive route of the convoy. In a sheer stroke of luck, there was a suitable LZ nearby in the form of a multi-story parking garage. They could defend it once they gathered the hostages, and it was wide enough for several helicopters to land and pick up multiple passengers. All that mattered now was to catch the MRG at the right place and the right time.

As the convoy approached an intersection, the lead vehicle was stopped by two pedestrians. As far as the front gun buggy's occupants could tell, an old man and his granddaughter had interrupted their travel plans. The old man's clumsy grandchild dropped one of her belongings, and while her grandfather almost continued on without her, the little girl ran to pick up the item she dropped.

At the rear of the convoy, a gun truck was besieged by a pair of twin street urchins offering goods in exchange for money. Candy, liquor, cigarettes, and cold drinks were among their offerings, but the driver and passenger of the gun truck would have none of them. Little did they know, two little words spoken over a network of thirty-some earpieces spelled the imminent demise of these drivers and their comrades.

"_**Do it."**_

The two urchins at the rear of the convoy each tossed their wicker baskets into the gun truck as soon as the short sentence was finished. Among their goods was the nasty surprise of armed and pin-less anti-personnel Tornado Grenades. As the stunned guards in the gun truck fumbled for the devices, they were quickly slaughtered when the grenades went off, spraying the gun truck's occupants with 'shrapnel'.

At the front of the convoy, the 'old man' and his 'granddaughter' shed their white civilian hooded shawls, revealing tactical gear and ammunition for weaponry they had kept concealed up to this point. The little girl gave the MRG soldiers an even bigger shock; she hauled out an M16/M203 combination that she had somehow managed to hide on her person, and now she was killing about two or so enemy soldiers in the gun buggy with the M203. Meanwhile, the 'old man' stripped off his gray beard and mustache as he leveled his custom Bizon submachine gun at the remaining soldiers and sprayed them with plastic death from the helical magazine of his weapon, which held upwards of several hundred rounds. By the time the rest of the convoy's guards reacted, it was already too late. More operators sprang up on either side of the road, placed in alternating spots some distance from each other so that they had a clear fire arc that wouldn't result in needless friendly fire. The few enemy troops that survived the initial fusillade of BB's were cut down from a distance by UJG Scotsman, artilleryman, and team sniper Adrian Murray, equipped with a specially-made SR-25 semi-automatic sniper rifle built by the Airsoft Surgeon, Clarence Lai. The excellent weapon made short work of the enemy survivors, and those who ran out of his range were quickly disoriented by Mk 9 Thunderflash grenade simulators thrown by Diana Smith, whose team, Sabaku No Ookami, cut down the MRG soldiers in the split second after.

The violent ambush took but 10 seconds, and in that span of time, the special forces operators had wiped out an entire platoon of MRG soldiers. Outnumbering the enemy 3 to 1 certainly helped, and the MRG high command had clearly underestimated the amount of intelligence leaking from their ranks like a bad seal. As other force members secured a perimeter around the disabled convoy, a squad led by Kaname split up and unlocked the ventilated trailers. Flashing weapon lights inside, they lowered their weapons when they saw that each trailer contained little more than hostages. With about twenty hostages total, the force had to work quick to make sure there weren't any sleepers amongst the hostages. As the members of Gakuen Vice frisked each hostage, including Kazumi, Sayo, and their crew, one sleeper finally broke his cover, drawing a Walther P38 from a hidden shoulder holster and firing at whomever he could hit. Kaname's childhood friend and Gakuen Vice rookie Hasaka Seiji took a number of rounds meant for the former while the MRG gunman was suddenly blasted from behind by two shots from Adrian's SR-25. The first shot hit the back panel of gunman's vest, the second one struck the gunman in the back of the head for good measure. As the gunman went down, Kaname quickly called for a medic, and Ayase Yue of Class 3-A responded. Alongside her best friend Miyazaki Nodoka, Yue pulled out her own pair of defibrillators, applied them to Seiji's vest, and punched the discharge buttons. Seiji's vest loosened up, and the nonchalant girl helped the elder boy to his feet.

"Thanks for the help. I won't forget that I owe you." said Seiji honestly.

"It's not a problem. I'm just doing what I have to." replied Yue stoically.

"All the hostages are accounted for, then." said Diana, slapping a new magazine into her accessorized M4A1 RIS. "Radioman, let those flyboys know we're ready for pickup."

At this, Nodoka nodded and grabbed the handset of her backpack-mounted AN/PRC-150 radio. Making sure it was set to the correct frequency, Nodoka pressed the transmit button and called in to their insertion/extraction helicopters.

"Mega Hawk, this is Delta Actual. Packages are secure, repeat, packages are secure. Requesting pickup at LZ X-ray, over."

"Solid copy, Delta Actual. We'll be there in one five mikes. Mark the LZ with smoke. Mega Hawk Out." responded the pilot curtly. As Nodoka turned to the hostages, she formulated a quick evacuation plan. With twenty people, she divided the hostages and assigned them to squads of five from the rescue team. Five at a time, she had them move at regular intervals to the Landing Zone, leaving a clean-up squad to scuttle the vehicles and partially deny the enemy. Once the emptied vehicles billowed red smoke, the clean-up squad quickly double-timed their pace to link up with the remainder of the rescue team. Upon entering the parking building, members of the rescue team split off to lay traps in the vehicular entrances and exits as well as the pedestrian walkways and stairwells. Regrouping at the top of the parking building, Yue made a quick head count of the hostages and team members to make sure they were all still there. Satisfied that all of them had gotten there safely, she turned to the twin 'street urchins', Narutaki Fuka and Narutaki Fumika who removed the enemy gun truck from action.

"Fuka, Fumika, that was impressive work back there with the gun truck." Yue praised. "Who taught you that idea? Was it Kaede?"

"Kaede-nee didn't teach us anything about guerilla tactics." stated Fuka.

"We got that from watching some movies set in Vietnam, and we remember that kind of tactic being used by the Viet Cong. Simple, but very effective." added Fumika, wiping the 'grime' makeup off her face.

Off to the side, Eric Vicious was chatting up Nodoka as the group waited for hide or hair of Mega Hawk. For once, Eric chose not to smoke in anyone else's presence as he conversed with the avid reader.

"So Miyazaki-san, do you do stuff like this often?" asked the 18-year old Englishman.

"N-not really." replied Nodoka shyly. "This is actually maybe the second time I've participated in a war game. Usually, I spend most of my free time wrapped up in a book." she added, referring to the Martians vs. Mages battle. "I-I'm not really one to do this sort of thing very often."

"I'd say whatever you've been reading has helped. You seem to know the phonetic alphabet pretty well, and you're talking on a military radio like it's second nature to you."

"Ah, well you see, that's because I've read a few military books, sorry to say."

"Don't be sorry! I like a girl who knows her way around military equipment." the playboy complimented, turning on the charm and going in for the kill. "Tell you what, if I can get your number, we'll go out to lunch sometime and get to know each other better. That sound like a plan?"

Nodoka flushed red and didn't know how to respond. "I-I... um... that's... uh..."

Without warning, Bruce Harris appeared behind Eric, and whipping out his hand, caught Eric's right ear betwixt thumb and forefinger, pulling hard. Eric immediately yelped in pain, backing away from Nodoka as Bruce continued to pull.

"Could you please stop hitting on every girl in sight? We're in the middle of a game, for god's sakes." said Bruce, a sigh escaping his lips as if he had done this many times before.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Ow!" replied Eric, wincing in pain.

"Have you even considered the fact that what you're trying to pull might get you arrested? She's in middle school, you twit!"

"What?!"

"Miyazaki-san, please inform my friend of your age."

"O-oh, I'm 14 years old, Vicious-san." said Nodoka.

"And you are how old, Eric Vicious?"

"18... oh. Oh, damn. I am so sorry, Miyazaki-san. I really didn't know."

"I just saved you from having to say the same thing to a judge. You best thank me."

"W-wait! Can we still be friends, Miyazaki-san?" asked Eric. Nodoka's flustered expression changed to a friendlier one, and she smiled.

"Of course. Give me a moment." she replied, taking out her cell phone. "Your cellphone has Bluetooth, right?"

"Yes."

"Well here, I'll perform a Bluetooth handshake."

Nodoka pressed a button on her cellphone, and it sent a message to Eric's own phone. Opening the message, he received Nodoka's name, e-mail address, and phone number in a pre-programmed format.

"If you and your friends are ever in Mahora any time after Azure Typhoon, give me a ring, and we'll meet up someplace. I'll introduce you to my other friends."

"We'll take you up on that, I'm sure." replied Bruce kindly. Putting an end to their idle conversation was the sound of the simple alarm they had set up going off. "Sounds like the enemy found us." He checked his magazine pouches and weapon for full ammunition. "How are the both of you for ammo?"

"I only used up two mags. I'm still in fighting shape." replied Eric, flipping the fire selector on his HK416 to full automatic.

"I didn't use any during the ambush, so I'm full for ammunition." said Nodoka, gesturing to her AK-105.

"Good. I better tell the others. "Heads-up, Delta Actual. We got baddies coming in. Defend the top three levels at all costs! We need to get those hostages out alive!" reported Bruce on his radio. The other platoons acknowledged, and some of them went down from the top to help defend the top three levels of the parking building.

"Nodoka-san, you better get upstairs. We need you to mark the LZ as soon as you see the helicopters." said Eric.

"What about you, Eric-san?" asked Nodoka apprehensively.

"We have to stall for time down here. Don't worry; we know what we're doing."

"Be safe then."

"Thanks, Nodoka-san. You too."

As Nodoka proceeded upstairs, she couldn't help but take a last look at Eric and Bruce. A few other members of their team had gathered, and they hustled off to man a defensive position. Silently, she prayed that they would be all right and make it out with the extraction helicopters before going to the top to help defend the hostages. As she got in position, she contacted Mega Hawk again to check their status.

"Mega Hawk, this is Delta Actual. What's your status, over?"

"Delta Actual, Mega Hawk is still ten mikes out. Are things getting hot down there, over?"

"Mega Hawk, the enemy is lighting a fire right under our asses!" replied Konoka with uncharacteristic anger. "Pour the coal to those engines and get us out of here! These hostages are toast if we all die, over!"

"Acknowledged, Delta Actual. We're sending our gunship escorts forward, but we still need you all to hold out for the next ten mikes. Mega Hawk out."

-------------------

Three floors below the top level, a heated firefight was underway as MRG forces exchanged bullets with the Special forces team. Several Claymore mines had already been expended in attempts to slow down the enemy, but now, it was a down-to-the wire firefight. Eric and Bruce had dispatched several opponents each when they saw grappling hooks attach to the chest-high walls of the parking building when they saw who ascended these ropes, they paled and took cover immediately. The white fox insignia on the berets of the climbers told them the whole story. Their most feared opponents, the all-female Kousetsu Kitsune were on the MRG's side. And just their luck, the UJG wasn't exactly in the habit of firing shots at women; in fact, it was part of their code of honor and chivalry not to do so.

Diana, who had paused to reload, saw the two UJG members cowering behind cover. She scrambled over to them furiously, angry that these two were chickening out for unknown reasons.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?! Get up and shoot!" admonished Diana.

"We can't!" replied the two in unison.

"Why the hell not?!"

"We're up against the Kousetsu Kitsune!" replied Eric.

"So?"

"Our code of honor and chivalry doesn't allow us to shoot females, Diana!" Bruce clarified.

Diana growled and popped up to spray a few MRG troops with automatic fire before ducking down again. "Listen, you morons, when someone is shooting at you, your own safety takes precedence over some stupid code of honor, regardless of what gender is shooting at you. You're letting this stupid code hold you back, and this is why the UJG will never best the Sabaku no Ookami, you hear? Now get up and shoot those Hokkaido skanks!"

The two shook their heads side to side, refusing to get up and shoot. With an annoyed growl, Diana grabbed the pull handle of Eric's TAG vest, wrapped her arms around him and guided his weapon downrange. Placing her index finger over his on the trigger, she made the 18-year-old strike down the Kousetsu Kitsune's leader, Seimiya Kaori. As the opponent's teammates dragged her back behind cover, Diana looked Eric hard in the face.

"Was that really so hard?"

As she finished this sentence, the two were forced to drop behind cover again when Kaori's fiercest disciple, Kanai Toshi, opened fire on them with her G36K.

"Bastard pigs!" cried Toshi. "You shot Kaori-chan!"

"Look what you did, Diana!" cried Bruce. "All you did was piss them off! I guess you're not familiar with the saying, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned'?"

"Very funny Harris, but while she's spazzing out, she doesn't take note of the Thunderflash I'm about to throw."

Diana tossed the pyrotechnic device down the driveway of the parking garage. The simulator went off, the loud blast disorienting the Kousetsu Kitsune. Diana immediately called her aces in the hole into action.

"Fuka, Fumika! Do it now!"

The Narutaki twins, having hidden in the space of the parking garage ceiling by wedging themselves against the pipes, hooked their legs around a pipe and swung down headfirst, their Ingram MAC-10 submachine guns in hand. Before the Kitsune had any chance to react, the two ninja-trained sisters mowed the team down with one long burst.

"How many did we get?" asked Fuka.

"All nine of them, if you count the one Eric-san and Diana-san shot." replied Fumika.

"That's not all of them." said Diana. "Their sniper must be elsewhere."

---------------

Kousetsu Kitsune team sniper Ivonne Weisskopf was, in fact, engaging Adrian and David on the roof, keeping their heads down, unaware her teammates had already been taken out by two little girls. Taking full advantage of the UJG's code of honor and chivalry, she kept their heads down, unaware that another rifle barrel was aimed at her, while Adrian and David cowered behind the wall of the parking building.

"We're dicked, aren't we?" asked Adrian.

"Aye." responded David. Suddenly, they heard a loud pop, and shortly after, they were no longer pinned down by Ivonne. David looked up and saw the Sabaku no Ookami's Russian-born designated marksman, Ilyana Kasdryev reaching out to him, offering to pull him up from the ground. Beside her was Takahashi Yoshiko, the Ookamis' Japanese representative, helping pull Adrian to his feet.

"Entire UJG is babies, _da_?" queried Ilyana to David.

"What?! We're not babies! And you're not the heavy from Team Fortress 2, either!" replied the UJG's DM.

"That's not the point, David-kun." said Yoshiko. "You might as well be a bunch of babies if you can't return fire when a girl is shooting at you guys. I admire your loyalty to the team code, but that will get you killed more often than you'd like in games."

"She's got a point." said Adrian. "Fact is, we're probably gonna have to be dealing with a lot more female players, so we might as well get used to having to shoot them if we're to survive."

David frowned. He didn't like it, but Adrian was right. They would have to make exceptions for the code of honor and chivalry if they were to be a proper team.

* * *

With Gakuen Vice on the topmost level, Rin and her cousin Ryosuke were blasting away with their M16A1 and Bizon when Ryosuke was struck in the chest by a burst of enemy AK fire. As he collapsed to the ground, Rin quickly rushed over to him in panic.

"Ryosuke-niisan! Ryosuke-niisan, hang on! I'll get help!" Rin cried in desperation. "Someone get a medic!"

"Calm down. I'm here, Yanagawa-san." replied Yue soothingly as she pulled out her defibrillator kit. In short order, Rin's dear cousin was back on his feet. Yue smiled as she saw Rin hug Ryosuke tightly.

"You two are close, aren't you?" asked Yue.

"You could say that." replied Ryosuke. "We're cousins, but we hang out with each other all the time. We might as well be siblings, really."

"I never go anywhere without Ryosuke-nii!" chirped Rin happily. This created some curiosity in Yue.

"Why are you guys so close?" the medic asked, earning a reluctant sigh from Ryosuke.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you once we're out of here."

"Fair enough. But make sure I hear it, all right?

The two went back to fighting off the MRG forces besieging the parking building, once again using the walls as their cover. Meanwhile, as Nodoka stood guard with the hostages, a feeling of discomfort came to her. While she was guarding the hostages, she felt a sense of guilt at not even having fired a single shot from her weapon, ashamed and feeling like she had not done anything to help. Suddenly, her walkie-talkie crackled with Eric's voice, delivering a message that gave her an opportunity to participate in battle, but at the same time dashing her hopes of Bruce and Eric both finishing the mission unscathed.

"Nodoka-san, I need your help down here! I'll take your place up top if you can come down here and help hold the defensive line. Bruce just took a round to the head. I need to get his 'body' up there for extraction as a casualty, over."

Nodoka keyed her microphone in response. "I'll be down there, just hang on, over!"

Nodoka turned to Yue. "I have to go down there. Eric-san is making his way back up here with Bruce-san. The latter was hit fatally, so they need me to replace him."

"Be careful with that radio, Nodoka-chan." said Yue worriedly. "If the enemy sees that, they'll focus all their fire on you."

"I will be careful, Yue-chan. I'll see you in a few minutes or less. Key your radio twice when you see Mega Hawk, all right?" replied Nodoka.

"No problem. Now you better get down there. Good luck."

With that, the librarian turned radioman sprinted down the garage ramps to where she had last seen Bruce and Eric. Sure enough, Eric was behind the barricade of cars they had moved into place, Bruce's still form next to him. With only a moment's hesitation at this sight, Nodoka crouched and moved quickly to the barricade, which was still rattling with the impact of incoming rounds.

"I'm here, Eric-san. Get moving." she said curtly.

"Watch your head when you're shooting. Don't stay up too long, Nodoka-san." advised Eric, preparing Bruce for a fireman's carry.

"I won't. I got you covered." replied Nodoka, getting ready to pop up. "Go!"

As Eric hustled out of the area with Bruce over his shoulders, Nodoka popped up, took aim, and directed a burst downrange at an unlucky MRG player who happened to silhouette himself against the incoming light behind him. As he crumpled dramatically like a sack of potatoes, she switched over to another opponent wielding an RPK machine gun and directed a burst at his head. When she started taking fire, she ducked down behind the barricade and found herself giggling madly. Here she was, under fire, and all she could do was giggle. Her first time under fire should've been scary. But when she remembered this was a game and Bruce wasn't dead, but just out of play, she found herself having fun. Diana saw this and smiled.

"Now you're getting the hang of it! Keep up the fire, Nodoka-san!"

Encouraged by Diana's words, Nodoka popped up during an opening in the enemy fire and expended the rest of her mid-cap magazine to keep the enemy's heads down. She ducked down and reloaded, forcing out her empty magazine by pushing the magazine release and the empty mag with her fresh one. As the empty magazine dislodged itself from the weapon and fell a little ways forward, she grabbed the empty magazine and placed it in her dump pouch, then tilted her AK-105 to the left and racked the charging handle with her left hand. Confirming the weapon was in firing condition, Nodoka continued the firefight, successfully downing several more people before Little Bird and Huey gunships from Mega Hawk flight arrived to help drive back the enemy. A Huey hovered at Nodoka's level of the parking garage while its door gunner swept in fire. Somehow, over all the noise Nodoka managed to hear the sound of her own walkie talkie reporting a push-to-talk button being keyed twice. It was her signal to head back up and mark the LZ. Nodoka turned to Diana and quickly excused herself.

"Diana-san! I have to mark the LZ! Our extraction helicopter is coming in!"

"I'll take care of things down here. Get moving!"

Nodoka nodded and sprinted back up the ramps. When she arrived at the top level, prop wash from the helicopters overhead tousled her hair as she quickly found an open spot. Producing a flare from her tactical gear, she struck the head of the flare with the friction-based ignition tool and as the flare hissed with smoke and chemical light, she tossed it out onto an unoccupied section of pavement. Up above, Mega Hawk's pilot caught sight of the flare.

"Delta Actual, we confirm the LZ. Coming in now for extraction, over."

On the ground, Nodoka immediately organized the extraction process. The LZ would still need a security perimeter if the hostages were to get out safely. Keying her radio, she called all the platoon leaders.

"Delta Actual to all platoons, extraction has arrived! Form a security perimeter around the LZ. Disengage and regroup at top level, over."

Nodoka didn't have to wait long for a response. "Copy, Delta Actual. Platoon 1 securing LZ, over." came Kaname's affirmation.

"Affirmative, Delta Actual. Platoon 2 falling back." reported Diana.

"Roger, Delta Actual. Platoon 3 is regrouping." replied Eric.

As the platoons retreated to the rooftop, they formed a perimeter around the hostages and the Landing Zone itself as five helicopters in all came in to land. A CH-47 Chinook and three Hueys touched down on the pavement and the Hostages were ushered aboard. The MRG troops downstairs weren't far away, and now that they had stumbled onto the LZ, were directing small-arms fire at the helicopters, the MRG's shots, for the most part, bouncing harmlessly off the sides of the helicopter. Nodoka responded to the threat immediately, shooting her AK-105 at a few machine gunners advancing towards their position. The hostages she was covering were being ushered onto the aircraft at the pace of a goosed hare. Despite the efforts of the SF platoons, incoming fire was still passing dangerously close to the hostages, missing them by inches. As Yue got onboard with the rest of the hostages in the Chinook, and the rest of the platoons piled into Hueys, a last burst of incoming fire streaked into the helicopter. Ticking harmlessly off the windshield, the incoming fire still forced the pilots into a hasty decision.

"Mega Hawk flight, the situation has gotten too hot! We're lifting off now!"

In the confusion of the hasty evacuation, however, the entire flight forgot the very person who called them down to extract the rescue team and the hostages. Only the decreasing volume of the rotor blades gave her a clue that she had missed her ride out. Nodoka turned in horror to see the helicopters flying off without her. Unclasping the handset from her radio. She frantically requested to be picked up.

"Mega Hawk, this is Delta Actual! I'm still down here! Requesting extraction, over!"

"Negative, Delta Actual, the LZ is too dangerous! You need to find an alternate location, or even just a PZ for a single helicopter. We can't risk these hostages getting shot, over!"

Nodoka realized the pilot was right. While being picked up now would be desirable, she would be putting the hostages in danger. With no other options, she had to first escape the MRG forces that now severely outnumbered her. Thinking quickly, the librarian pulled the pin on a smoke grenade and tossed it out from behind the car she was using for cover. As the smoke built up, obscuring her from the view of her opponents, she fell back on her pre-event training with the military club. Among the exercises they did was rappelling, and she would quickly put her skills to the test. Using the axle of a nearby car as an anchor, she flung a bundle of parachute cord over the side of the parking building, the cord barely reaching the street below. Making sure that she had tied it correctly, she sprayed a burst of rounds from her AK through the smoke, hoping to deter any would-be attackers, and then vaulted over the side of the parking building and started down the rope 'Australian Style'. She descended front-first, enabling her to fire her weapon as she descended the rope, rather than the traditional back-first descent. Luckily for her, she had managed to avoid any opponents thus far, since most of the MRG players were on the roof. By the time they finally rushed into the smoke, Nodoka was already long gone and putting escape and evasion training into use. Now, what mattered was that she escape the reach of the MRG and hopefully be picked up by her comrades or make it back to friendly territory.

* * *

Across Mahora, at a heavily-fortified mansion that served as Poseidon Tactical Inc.'s HQ, a motorcade of SUV's, dirtbikes, and technicals awaited the departure of its most precious cargo. Ayaka was playing the role of the Democratic Mahorastan Party's top candidate. The contractors around her were assigned to provide personal security as she traveled to and from a meeting with Natsume Reiko, top official of the Coalition Interim Government Authority (CIGA), who was in real life the student council president at Tokorozawa High School. Like a true head of state, she had a Personal Security Detail with her almost all the time, but if push came to shove, she could defend herself very well. However, Ayaka hadn't really handled firearms before, and that was exactly what the security contractors protecting her had trained to do for a long time now. Ushered into a vehicle somewhere in the midst of the motorcade of identical SUV's, the formation got underway, led off by the motorbikes up front, each carrying a driver and a Submachine gun-toting passenger. Following closely behind were Technicals-- up-armored Ford, Nissan and Toyota 4x4 pickup trucks that carried 1 of three formidable weapons: a Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun, an M240 machine gun, or custom-built Mk 19 Full-automatic Grenade Launchers. Finally, the middle of the convoy was populated by a number of GMC Suburbans occupied by several contractors armed with some rather heavy personal firepower. In addition, two to three Tactical Vehicles inspired by the designs of Dillon Aerospace were located somewhere in the convoy, ready to surprise the enemy with overwhelming firepower from an M134D Minigun mounted inside each of these nondescript SUV's. Already, Ayaka's motorcade was a force to be reckoned with, but Poseidon Tactical upped the ante and tacked on a Huey gunship equipped with rocket pods and quadruple M60 machine gun mounts. Tatsumiya Mana would personally oversee the security of the Yukihiro motorcade from the helicopter and would be there to cover Ayaka's vehicle if the motorcade got ambushed, even extract their principle if things got really hairy.

As the motorcade exited the relative calm of friendly territory, tension amongst the security detail mounted as they put their game faces on while the gaggle of vehicles pressed on towards the actual 'city' of Mahora along the established Main Supply Route (MSR) Philadelphia, as it was called by the Coalition Forces. The 5-mile long two-lane stretch of blacktop asphalt concrete was flanked on either side by continuous elevated banks of grass, as if the road was cutting a valley through what had once been grassy plain. Indeed, the plain it had most likely been in its former life had very tall grass, providing ample concealment from eyes on the ground for potential ambushers. Thankfully, aerial observation was much harder to hide from, and Mana could make out a few human shapes—armed and dangerous ones, no less-- lying in wait less than half a mile ahead from the outriders in the convoy. Mana radioed the enemy locations to the motorcyclists, who leapt forward of the convoy to go clear out these nuisances by using their own brand of hit-and-run tactics. The motorcade pressed on in this manner, not even coming under stray fire. For Mana, clearing out these pathetic ambushers was child's play; the real challenge lay in traversing the urban area. They might have more ways to move, but their speed would be hampered by the small streets, and if they were bogged down in one particular area, the motorcade would be obliterated by enemy fire. But Mana, after having met the members of Wildfire Tactical Solutions, had come to trust them as experts in their field, and was willing to have faith that they could bring their comrades and principle safely through any sort of encounter.

Upon arriving in the city, Michael Kealington, who was with his team as they guarded Ayaka in both her vehicle and an escort in front of it, noted that the organizers had done an excellent job re-creating urban conflicts. Despite the war that was going on around them, civilians still milled about, ignoring the violence around them and trying to live a semblance of a normal life. There were still plenty of vehicles running around the city, though mass transit had been shut down, for scripted 'fears' that the systems could be used by insurgent groups to conduct terrorist attacks. Most of the shops were open despite the fact that property damage might become an issue with so many BB's flying around.

The convoy made a turn onto another road, this one devoid of people. This set off warning flags in the heads of Wildfire Tactical's members. This was rarely a good sign, and in previous experience, it meant they were rolling into a potential ambush.

"Eyes peeled, ladies and gents." radioed Michael. "I think we may be rolling into a trap, over."

"Copy that, Mike. We're thinking the same thing up here. Over." replied Ray Jennings, Wildfire Tactical's second-in-command.

A few meters ahead of the convoy, two RPG-7 tubes jutted out of windowsills, and as the convoy got within the right distance, the MRG players wielding them armed the rockets and squeezed the triggers. The rocket simulators slammed directly into the lead technical, catching the motorcade by surprise. On instinct, Yasumeko Jun, who was riding in Ayaka's vehicle along with Michael, pulled the class president to the floor of the SUV and shielded the blonde with her own body. Meanwhile, Michael, Pierre Blanc, and Hayder Al-Zahim aimed their weapons out of their windows and began putting down suppressive fire. Michael shouted an order to the drivers of all the Suburbans in the convoy.

"Guns up, peel out! Split up and rendezvous at the destination! Confuse the enemy and make their job more difficult!"

The drivers responded and all of the heavily-tinted SUV's raced out of the kill box in staggered formation before quickly turning into side streets and racing away before the enemy could get a bead on them. In Ayaka's vehicle, Wildfire Tactical member Sofia Thorborg firewalled the gas pedal as she quickly steered to the left, and quickly cleared the area of attack. Despite the considerable heft of the American-designed SUV, she was able to drive the vehicle as if it were an extension of her body. Having hailed from the birthplace of Saab automobiles, she had been off-road driving since the age of 13 on dirt tracks and was an accomplished amateur-circuit racer by the time she was old enough to drive on Sweden's roads. Her skills aided in her defensive driving as she slowed down entering a corner and then powered out on the exit as they raced through Mahora's streets before finding an open road and unleashing the full 500 horsepower of the customized Supercharged 6.2L Vortec V8 engine. Not too far behind was Mana's helicopter, providing overwatch for Ayaka's Suburban, ready to mow down any more MRG forces that were trying to kill or kidnap the principle. As they neared their destination, however, it looked like no one would be attempting to attack them anymore, at least for the time being. Mana radioed to the SUV below.

"Looks like you're in the clear, Bronco." said Mana, using the randomly-generated callsign for Michael. "It doesn't look like anyone else is gonna attack, and from this point in, Coalition Forces and Poseidon Tactical have the area secure, over."

"Copy that, Oracle. Any sign of the other vehicles, over?" replied Michael. Mana's callsign was originally 'Old Lady', but as soon as this popped up on the callsign generator, she placed a gun to the head of the computer's operator and had them pick another one that she would tolerate.

"Negative, Bronco. You guys are the first ones here. Perhaps it's best if you let the principle sit in her seat again; she can't be comfortable after being dragged to the floor and taken for a ride at close to 100 mph, over."

Michael realized Mana was right. He nodded to Jun, who was still shielding Ayaka up to this point, and the raven-haired 18-year-old helped the class president of 3-A back into her seat.

"Exciting enough for you, Yukihiro-san?" asked Jun with a smile.

"Perhaps too much, Yasumeko-san." replied Ayaka sheepishly. _It would've been better if Negi-sensei was shielding me,_ she added mentally.

"All units, this is Bronco. We have reached the objective. Radio in once you're in the clear, over." ordered Michael. It took a few minutes, but Michael soon got responses from other vehicles in the convoy.

"Hammerhead reporting. All clear, over."

"Spitfire checking in. We've shaken the enemy, over."

"Bricktop calling. Coast is clear for us, over."

"Thunderbolt says hello, Bronco. Proceeding to objective now, over."

"Mustang saying howdy, Bronco. Regrouping at objective, over."

"Hellfire to Bronco, sorry to keep you waiting, over."

As the other Suburbans joined up with Bronco, they proceeded inside the guarded compound, followed by the technicals that survived the ambush and turned the tables on their attackers. Even the motorcyclists returned, looking a little worse for wear but amazingly unharmed. Pulling up to the shaded driveway, Natsume Reiko waited patiently, flanked by her bodyguards, as Ayaka's Suburban stopped at the entrance to the main building. The members of Wildfire Tactical exited first, scanning the perimeter for any potential threats, then allowing Ayaka to exit into their protective diamond formation. At the top of the stair set, the two presidents greeted each other.

"Konnichiwa, Yukihiro-dono." began Reiko. "I trust that your journey here was not too arduous?"

"We had a bit of excitement, Natsume-dono." admitted Ayaka. "Fortunately, it was nothing these very capable contractors couldn't handle. And please, feel free to call me Ayaka."

"I am glad that you are unharmed then, Ayaka-san. Likewise, you may call me Reiko." replied Reiko with a smile. "Come, let us go inside. There are more important matters to discuss at the moment."

As the two 'diplomats' went inside the building, the Poseidon Tactical convoy parked their vehicles elsewhere so as not to block the driveway. Their escort gunship had landed on the helipad nearby, and Mana quickly hopped out to speak with Michael while the rest of his team sat idly by in their vehicles, scanning for threats.

"Good job on the way in, protecting the principle." commended Mana. "I'll be sure to reflect your hard work in your teams' salary."

"Thank you very much, Tatsumiya-taishou." replied Michael. "I am glad my team is able to be of notable service to you."

"You're very welcome. Now, for the return trip, we are changing the contingency profile. My helicopter will no longer be around to cover you in case of attack. Split up like everyone else and make sure you're not followed."

"Why the change in profile, Tatsumiya-taishou?" asked Michael, puzzled. "Our strategy worked the first time. No one messed with us."

"One cannot use the same trick twice, Kealington-san. To outwit our enemy, we must first outwit their decision-making ability. No doubt, some of them have witnessed our helicopter following your car specifically. We can use that assumption to our advantage, at least temporarily. If we come under attack, our helicopter will follow another vehicle while you try to sneak past and take advantage of the confusion to escape. Same idea as meeting up here, in which all transports regroup at the destination when their mission is complete. If you have any other ideas, let me know before we leave."

"Well, the only route out of here is MSR Philadelphia. I think as soon as most of us meet up there, we'll definitely have to travel in staggered formation for better protection."

"Good idea. I'll relay it to the other teams."

------------------

Meanwhile, inside the CIGA compound, Reiko and Ayaka discussed the political future of Mahorastan, most importantly, how the locals were going to interact with the Coalition Forces.

"Ayaka-san, once the major fighting is over, what do you intend to do? Do you have any plans for rebuilding Mahorastan's government?" asked Reiko.

"To be completely honest, I'm not entirely certain." admitted Ayaka. "As far as I know, I will most likely try to establish a representative or parliamentary government, similar to the American or British systems. Ultimately, however, I know the Free Mahorastan Alliance will be influencing most of my decisions. Not really the best way to run things, but in all honesty, I have no other real alternative. What about the Coalition Forces? How will they assist in the transitional process?"

"For my part, we'll try to be as Laissez-Faire as possible. The Coalition Forces are trying to avoid a CPA-type situation that bogged down the rebuilding effort and simply skimmed off of the local economy. Instead, we'll reduce our presence and role to that of a peacekeeping force and let the Mahorastani people do as they wish. We certainly won't leave the FMA out of this; we'll probably have them become the military force for Mahorastan, which means leaving behind some Special Forces troops as instructors and advisors. You have my word that the Coalition Forces will interfere as little as possible."

Ayaka smiled. "Thank you, Reiko-san. I accept your promise."

Reiko grinned in response. "Wonderful! For this, we must have a toast. I'll be back shortly."

The high school student council president walked off to the kitchen while Ayaka simply turned to observe the flowers in the nearby garden. With her attention diverted, she didn't notice as Reiko slipped a black book-shaped item and some stick-like objects from her blazer into Ayaka's purse.

-----------------

The meeting had finally ended, and as Ayaka bade farewell to Reiko, the convoy pulled up to pick up its principle, and as they headed out the gate, the technicals and motorcycles were once again in the lead. In Ayaka's Suburban, the class president noticed a little bit of added weight to her purse. She quickly dug through it for anything unfamiliar, and pulled out a black book-shaped object. Causing surprise to her and alarm to the contractors around her, she found the note attached and read it:

_Dear Ayaka-san,_

_If you're reading this note, then you have received my present. While you weren't looking, I slipped a Magpul FMG-9 and a number of gas Glock magazines into your purse. I understand that your guards are capable people, and I am certainly not downplaying their ability, but I give you this concealable weapon as a means to defend yourself. Those who survive have a habit for planning contingencies for emergency situations. In this case, this is to be used if your guards are incapacitated or otherwise unable to continue their work. Accompanied are instructions on how to open and use this weapon. Hopefully, you never will have to, but it's best not to take chances._

_Best Wishes,_

_Natsume Reiko_

As Ayaka and Jun finished reading the letter, both breathed a sigh of relief. Then, the female contractor chided her principle concerning the discovery of the apparently helpful object.

"Yukihiro-san, that was extremely dangerous. Next time, before we leave an area like that, I would appreciate it if I was allowed to inspect your belongings for anything harmful." voiced Jun concernedly.

"But this ultimately turned out not to be a dangerous, but instead helpful object! Isn't that enough?" replied Ayaka.

"Yukihiro-san, Natsume-san could have just as easily been an enemy. We don't know everything that the Coalition forces are going to do. All we know are the joint missions that we perform. We certainly don't know the true extent of the motives of each faction. You lucked out this time, but from now on, I will need to inspect any belongings or luggage you bring around. I apologize if I seem to be invading your privacy, but your safety is my primary concern."

"I understand, Yasumeko-san. Next time, I'll go to you first."

As the convoy proceeded from the city to MSR Philadelphia, Ayaka checked out her present from Reiko. According to the manual, the FMG-9 was basically a concealable personal defense weapon comprised of a modified Glock 17 pistol. It only had one firing mode, and Reiko had selected the full-automatic variant for her. A Glock 18 select-fire pistol, on the other hand, was not designed to work with the FMG-9's design, as there was no way to control the fire selector from the outside of the weapon. She read the instructions on its operation, and learned how to deploy the weapon for action, pressing a release button to ready the weapon. The book-shaped item split in half, the latter half of the FMG-9 rotating 180 degrees to fall in line with the other half of the weapon. A pistol grip flipped down 90 degrees, the trigger revealing itself as it locked into place, and a small foregrip flipped down from the muzzle end of the weapon. Fascinated, Ayaka inserted a extended Glock magazine into the hollow grip and she confirmed its loading when she heard the click of the magazine release locking and seating the ammunition in place. She then pulled the small charging handle with the knuckle of her index finger and let it slam home to chamber the first round of the magazine. She shouldered the weapon to get a feel for it, then just as suddenly folded the weapon back up. It wasn't something she needed right now, and hopefully she would not have to use it.

Her thoughts on the matter had barely been finished when an explosion occurred about 5 car lengths ahead. A roadside IED (Improvised Explosive Device) was set off as one of the technicals in the lead passed it by, removing the technical and all its occupants from action. The Suburbans quickly moved into stagger stack formation as they all floored it in a high-speed escape attempt. Mana cursed herself for not considering this, and was somewhat thankful that Michael had the foresight to have the convoy deploy into a stagger if they came under attack.

_Damn, I should have known!_ Thought Mana, frustrated. _The shell game trick won't work here; there's only one escape route. We have to defend on speed, agility, and firepower to get out of this one!_

RPG's attempted to take down the Huey Mana was hitching a ride on, and the door gunners on either side responded with a hail of automatic fire. For single-barreled suppression purposes, nothing beat the custom-made MG3 machine guns mounted in lieu of the traditional M60. The real weapon's predecessor, the MG42, could fire up to 1,500 rounds per minute. With scaled down ammunition, a robust propulsion and air supply, and large ammunition reserves, the two door gunners rained plastic on the sides of the road, attempting to obliterate the enemy with a mighty sweep of fire.

On the ground, Ayaka was once again pinned to the floor of the Suburban as Jun shielded her while the men in the vehicle fired their personal weapons out the window once again. As they sped past their attackers lining the road, a burst of BB's streaked into Michael's chest and throat. With the wind knocked out of him, he collapsed against his seat, the muzzle of his AKM hitting the floor of the car. Beside him, Sofia cursed as she noted his condition.

"_Jävlar!_ Mike's down! Pierre! Defibrillator, now!" shouted the Swede over the din of battle.

"Coming your way, _mon ami_." replied the Frenchman, tossing a small electronic device. Without looking, she caught the device and attached the electrodes to Michael's vest. The defibrillator design was more akin to a civilian Automatic External Defibrillator, and it was much simpler to use than the 'shock paddle' style of defibrillators. Once the electrodes were attached, Sofia fumbled for the controls of the AED and punched the red button when she heard a tone. Michael was quickly returned to play, drawing in air that had been driven out by the compression of his sensor vest. Picking up his AKM and racking the charging handle, he peeled the electrodes off and readied his weapon for firing.

"Thanks, Sofia. I owe you one."

"Save it for later, boss. We're not out of the woods yet."

Sofia's words proved true when enemy fire tagged a hit sensor mounted in the vicinity of the engine bay. The Suburban suddenly lost all power and came to a shuddering stop. The smoke generator billowed puffs of red smoke, indicating the vehicle was disabled, but not destroyed. Sofia attempted to restart the engine, only to be met with silence. Michael quickly used his personal radio to summon backup.

"All units, this is Bronco. Our vehicle is disabled, can anyone assist, over?"

"Bronco, this is Oracle. Switch to our original contingency plan. Pop smoke and make your way into the field for a suitable LZ. We have you covered, over." replied Mana as her Huey strafed the sides of the MSR with guns and rockets.

As it passed over Ayaka's Suburban, Sofia deployed white smoke grenades to mask the position of the Suburban from enemy eyes and racked the pump on her Remington M870 Shorty as she retrieved it from the space between her seat and the center console. The Suburban's occupants quickly dismounted, Sofia taking point as they made their way to the field on the side of the road. Two MRG soldiers were waiting on the other side of the smokescreen to ambush them, but Sofia was smart enough to not take chances. Working the pump quickly, she let loose two blasts of .2 gram BB shot right into the vests of their would-be attackers as they dashed through the smoke. Sofia tossed out a green smoke grenade to mark the LZ for the gunship as it circled round to land. No sooner had the landing skids settled on the grass than when Mana leapt out and raced several meters from the helicopter before dropping to a knee and opening fire on MRG forces trying to rush the group from the smokescreen still lingering on the MSR. As she did this, Ayaka's security detail automatically fell into a maneuver known as the Australian Peel. While Ayaka was rushed to the helicopter, Mana furiously expended all the ammunition in her M21's magazine. Michael, who was directly behind her, opened fire on full auto while Mana spun to her left and dashed to the back of a single-file line as she reloaded. When Michael 'peeled' off to the helicopter, Hayder took up the firing, followed by Pierre, then Mana again.

As Mana used up her most recent magazine, she turned to reload and board the Huey when three rounds struck her right rear calf. Losing her balance, Mana fell to the ground while the Ayaka and the Wildfire team members warned her about the MRG soldier quickly approaching. Mana rolled sideways to draw her pistol, but she quickly found it blasted out of her hand by the enemy, who was moving in for the kill. Mana was resigned to her fate when....

WH-CHAK! BRRRRRRRRT!

The soldier was riddled in the chest with a 10-round burst. As the MRG soldier slumped to the grass, Mana turned around to see Ayaka extending one hand to help the mercenary to her feet and return her pistol, and holding her new FMG-9 in the other, index finger within easy reach of the trigger. Mana held onto Ayaka's forearm and carefully got to her feet before retrieving her pistol from the class president's hand.

"Thank you, Ayaka-san. You should've left without me, though." said Mana.

"And lose the leader of these fine bodyguards? Absolutely not. You would've done the same for me; after all, I'm the one paying your contract." replied Ayaka with a grin.

"Good point." replied Mana with a smile. The two quickly boarded the Huey and the helicopter dusted off towards the Poseidon Tactical compound. As Mana looked back at the now cluttered MSR Philadelphia, she got on the radio to HQ to send out a wrecker unit. The disabled vehicles on the MSR would impede traffic flow, if not make a perfect ambush point for enemy forces.

"HQ, this is Oracle. Requesting a towing crew to mile marker 5 of MSR Philadelphia, I count zero-five disabled units that need to be removed ASAP. I'm authorizing gunship support and armed escort for the crew, over."

"Copy, Oracle. Dispatching wrecker to designated location. Out."

Mana watched MSR Philadelphia for a few minutes before sighting a Little Bird flying over a gaggle of technicals driving in formation around a heavily-armored American-made Mack M915 modified into a heavy-duty tow truck with a dozer plow mounted some distance from its front bumper in order to protect its operators from IEDs and mines. Just in case the truck itself came under attack, there was a roof-mounted remote weapon station slaved to the front passenger's binocular video sighting system, which worked on the same concept as the chain gun mounted on the US Army AH-64 Apache. Wherever the passenger looked, the weapon aimed, and a built-in camera helped the user see what was in their blind spot if they had to check the rear without using mirrors. Much of Poseidon Tactical's technology and vehicles were furnished by both Wildfire Tactical and Excalibur Tactical Group, the latter of which Michael's father was President and CEO. Because of this link, it was something of a downplayed fact that Excalibur Tactical was also field-testing equipment in a simulated combat scenario before modifying the technology for combat usage with live weapons and ammunition.

Mana looked at the wrecking team with interest before diverting her attention to returning to HQ. As far as she was concerned, the mission was a success.

-------------------

Across Mahora, the MRG was suffering a number of serious defeats by the other three factions pitted against it. The FMA had successfully destroyed a major ammunition and supply dump (using 'explosives' supplied by the Coalition Forces) and taken the bell tower they were using as an observation post. Against the contractors of Poseidon Tactical, they had failed to capture Democratic Mahorastan Party representative Yukihiro Ayaka, failed to prevent the taking of Library Island, and despite causing many casualties to the contractors, failed to prevent humanitarian supplies from reaching a refugee camp. Against the Coalition Forces, one more failure was added to their list when several hostages they were holding were rescued by three Special Forces platoons that managed to hold off more or less an entire company of MRG troops and escape with the hostages. This gratuitous amount of bad news enraged Evangeline. The constant success of her enemies felt like an insult to the feared and infamous _Maga Nosferatu_. She was still trying to cope with the fact that mere toys had managed to wipe out not just Chachamaru (which by all accounts should've been impossible), but an entire battalion of her troops as well. At this point, even the slightest bit of good news would be welcome, hopefully before she lost her temper and killed a subordinate with an entire magazine from her AK-47 and the strength of her own two hands. As luck would have it, a rather nervous subordinate interrupted her thoughts with a report.

"G-General McDowell, ma'am?" asked the MRG player with a clipboard in his hands.

"**What is it?"** hissed Evangeline venomously, her patience clearly worn thin.

"W-We've received a report of a Coalition radioman separated from her platoon. Witnesses report her having been part of the Coalition SF platoon that snatched out our hostages. Our forces are now pursuing her as we speak. How do you want them to proceed?"

Evangeline grinned devilishly. This was exactly the kind of good news she needed. "Allow me to speak with event control first."

Evangeline called into the event control station from her radio set. "Event Control, this is MRG HQ. Requesting a mission to capture a Coalition radioman currently attempting to flee our territory, over."

A few seconds passed, then a response. "Acknowledged, MRG HQ. Your new mission is to capture the Coalition radioman, who we believe may hold valuable radio codes. As this can tip the odds severely in your favor, we are assigning a 700-point value to this mission. Over and out."

Evangeline grinned and turned to her subordinate. "Tell our forces to capture her alive. Use whatever means necessary."

-------------------

At the Coalition Forces Airfield, cheers erupted as the helicopters bringing back the Spec Ops team and hostages came in to land. As the passengers dismounted, Negi watched with a tired smile, having returned from the ruckus on Library Island. The War Pigs returned as well, mainly to patch up the partially damaged 'Fat Man'. No longer willing to risk the sort of damage that Chachamaru wreaked, the automotive safety glass was replaced with ballistic glass that would stop up to .338 Lapua Magnum rifle rounds. The body of the vehicle, thankfully, had not been damaged since it was designed to stop up to .50 BMG ammunition. The only trace of Chachamaru potentially damaging the vehicle were scuff marks left by multiple BB hits to the outer metal of the vehicle, but these could be buffed out and made to vanish.

As Negi reloaded his magazines and topped them off with ammunition, Yue, Diana, and Eric approached him, having ran all the way from the helicopters.

"Negi-taishou! Negi-taishou, there's a problem!" announced Yue frantically.

"What's the matter, Yue-san?" asked Negi worriedly.

"Mega Hawk flight took off without Nodoka, Negi!" stated Diana gravely.

"Commander Negi, we need to go back in there and get Nodoka out of enemy territory!" demanded Eric. "The enemy's on her trail now, and we don't have time to waste!"

"I understand this, now let me call it in!" replied Negi, riled up by the sudden influx of bad news. He connected to Event Control and did the same thing as Evangeline.

"Event Control, this is Coalition HQ. Requesting a search-and-rescue mission to retrieve radioman Miyazaki Nodoka, over!"

"Affirmative, mission is go, Coalition HQ. Better hurry. The MRG's mission is to capture her for several hundred points. She's got radio codes that I'm sure you don't want going to the enemy. Over and out."

With the end of the radio transmission, Negi turned to the three Special Forces platoon members in front of him.

"We've got several hundred points riding on this, as well as Nodoka-san's safety. Your rescue mission is granted, now go and get her out of there! We don't leave our comrades behind, got it?!" ordered Negi.

"Sir, yes sir!" replied Diana, Yue, and Eric, saluting. Negi returned the salute and watched as the three gathered more ammunition and raced to a waiting helicopter. All Negi could do was watch them go and pray that they and Nodoka would return safely.

_Please, everyone. Be safe. Get Nodoka-san out of there in one piece._

**To Be Continued**

* * *

The race for Nodoka is on! Who will get to her first? How will she survive, alone, and hunted in enemy territory? Can her comrades save her in time?

Also in the next chapter, it is a known fact that every army marches on its stomach, regardless of the army's size. As Azure Typhoon breaks temporarily for a lunch break, how does the staff of Chao Bao Zi handle 4 armies of some very hungry people? All that and more in the next chapter, **Salvation before lunch!**


End file.
